Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to our 2024 half-year results conference call, which is taking place at our new virtual studio here in Winterthur. I will start by giving an overview of the highlights of the first half of 2024, followed by our CFO, Bernhard Wiehl, who will present Autoneum's financial results. You will then receive a brief update on our strategy, the current market development, and the outlook for the full year.
Of course, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. Please remember that this conference call may not be recorded for publication or broadcast. Let me start with an overview of the achievements and highlights for the first half of this year. In summary, Autoneum managed to achieve a significant increase in year-on-year revenue and profitability.
The company's revenue in local currencies increased by more than 15% year-on-year to CHF 1.2 billion, mainly supported by inorganic growth in Europe and North America. However, also in pure organic growth, Autoneum slightly outperformed the market by half a percentage point. Accordingly, we were also able to further expand our position as the global market leader for acoustic and thermal solutions. EBIT in the first half of 2024 climbed by CHF 20.8 million to almost CHF 66 million.
The EBIT margin improved accordingly by 1.3 percentage points to 5.4%, and therefore, reached the upper end of our guidance. This is largely attributable to continuous gains in operational efficiency, particularly in Business Group North America. Autoneum achieved a net result of CHF 36.1 million.
This represents a substantial improvement in profitability, as the prior year period was supported by special one-time effects. I would like to emphasize that Autoneum succeeded in increasing its EBIT margin despite a challenging and flat market environment. This success is no coincidence, but rather the result of a consistent focus and execution. I will come back later to this in more detail. We are aware that we still have a lot of potential for further growth, as well as the need to further strengthen our market position in Asia.
Therefore, we have hired a dedicated head of sales and business development. Furthermore, we established a local R&T advanced development department in China. This new department will support sales initiatives with a focus on future-fit products and work even more closely with the local customers in the pre-development phase.
New regulations, such as the revised End- of- Life Vehicles Directive in Europe, are accelerating the automotive industry's transition to a circular economy. In line with this, the recyclability of vehicles at the end of their service life is becoming increasingly important, which raises the demand for automotive components that are fully recyclable. The newly launched trunk side trim is based on Propylat PET, and is the latest addition to Autoneum's portfolio of sustainable products made entirely from polyester.
As with the environmentally friendly mono material carpet systems, the new 100% polyester trunk side trim is fully recyclable. In addition to an excellent environmental footprint in terms of recycled content, waste-free manufacturing, and end-of-life recyclability, the component meets the highest technical performance standards. In addition to our key role as a supplier of sustainable products, Autoneum is also an important employer with 64 production facilities worldwide.
We are proud to announce that the renowned Top Employers Institute has recognized Autoneum as a Top Employer 2024 in Switzerland. Being certified as a top employer showcases an organization's dedication to creating a better working environment. About a year ago, we presented our Level Up One-6-8 program at our half-year conference call. We are now approaching the successful completion of this strategic program, which I would like to explain in more detail on the next slide.
For those who are not yet familiar with the program, Level Up One-6-8, I will briefly explain its meaning. Level Up refers to the next higher level we are aiming for, and One stands for One Autoneum, and our goal to be the number one in our industry segment. Six to eight stands for our medium-term 6%-8% target for growth and profitability.
When I started as the company's new CEO more than one year ago, there were various challenges that needed to be tackled immediately, such as inflation, the integration of the recently acquired Borgers Automotive Company, and the turnaround in North America. Together with the management team, we defined six key priorities under the umbrella name Level Up One-6-8. I would like to briefly highlight the achievements during the last 6- 12 months against those priorities.
First, we have achieved the turnaround in North America. Thanks to a significant increase in operational efficiency, we have thus created an important basis to increase profitability, and we will take further steps to secure this positive development. Secondly, the integration of Borgers. We successfully completed the organizational integration of Borgers by the end of 2023, and Borgers already made a positive contribution to earnings in the first year.
The third priority was to strengthen the performance in Europe. In a declining market, we outperformed on revenue growth while improving EBIT year-over-year. In parallel, we were also able to start the optimization of our footprint to boost competitiveness and profitability. Fourth, inflation compensation. Thanks to successful price management last year, we were able to achieve a significant inflation compensation and are also successfully mastering this challenge on a continuous basis. We have defined profitable growth as our fifth priority, which covers several ongoing sales initiatives.
Meanwhile, we have made significant progress with the implementation of cross-selling initiatives and have also won new awards for the new mobility products. In Asia, we opened two new plants in important markets where we were not yet present, and we have established the Commercial Vehicles Business U nit. All of these initiatives will support our goal of future profitable growth.
However, we must and we will continue to work intensively on this. Finally, as a sixth and cross-regional priority under the name One Autoneum, we have implemented various measures to promote culture, teamwork, internal communication, and talent development in the long term. As progress in the Business Group North America made a significant contribution to the group result, I would like to take a closer look at the progress made in recent months. Business Group North America posted a significant increase in earnings and margins compared to the previous-year period.
EBIT before one-time effects amounted to CHF 20.8 million, while the EBIT margin grew by an impressive five percentage points to an EBIT margin of now 4.6%.
The improved margin is attributable to the following factors: The largest contribution came from recurring operational improvements, which amounted to almost CHF 22 million Swiss francs and were achieved through operational stability and efficiency gains in almost all plants, including successful price management. Furthermore, cost structure optimizations were implemented, for example, with the relocation of the headquarters to Farmington Hills. Favorable effects from volume and product mix also supported our EBIT by another CHF 1.5 million .
In addition, the sales team succeeded in winning new businesses, new business awards, and showed initial successes with our cross-selling initiatives. Finally, the local teams achieved a significant progress in the safety and quality standards for our employees and customers. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Bernhard Wiehl, our CFO, for the presentation of our financial results.
Thank you, Eelco. Good morning, everybody, and welcome. Following Eelco's information on Autoneum's overall business development in the first half year, 2024, I will provide now a more detailed overview of our financial results. Let's start with an overview of the key figures for the first semester. As Eelco pointed out already, we were able to significantly increase our revenue and EBIT, excluding one-time effects, compared to the prior year period.
Our strong operating performance is also reflected in the improved free cash flow. I will provide more details on Autoneum's key figures and of course, this presentation. For better comparability, the figures for the first half year, 2023, are presented excluding one-time effects and acquisition-related effects. Despite the somewhat flat market conditions in the first half year, Autoneum generated a substantial revenue growth in local currencies.
Organically, revenue climbed only slightly by 0.3% and thus developed marginally better than the global production volumes. However, thanks to inorganic revenue growth of nearly 15%, Autoneum managed to outgrow the market considerably. This remarkable increase resulted from the fact that, contrary to the prior year period, the acquired units of Borgers Automotive contributed to not just one, but to both quarters in the first half year, 2024.
This first-time inclusion of the Borgers business for the entire semester had the greatest impact on revenue development in Europe and in North America. Consolidated in Swiss francs, revenue rose by CHF 110 million- CHF 1.2 billion.
Mainly driven by the appreciation of the Swiss franc against the Argentine peso, Czech koruna, US dollar, euro, and renminbi, currency translation effects negatively affected group revenue with nearly CHF 57 million in the first semester. Organically, Business Group Europe performed slightly better than the market, but nevertheless, recorded a minor decline of CHF 2 million. Inorganically, on the other hand, revenue rose substantially by nearly CHF 140 million.
Business Group North America, rise in revenue in local currencies was mainly due to the acquisition-related inorganic growth of CHF 27 million. Organic revenue development was slightly below the market, but with around CHF 1 million on par with the level of the prior year. Business Group Asia registered an organic drop in revenue of CHF 19 million. Inorganically, revenue rose by CHF 3 million.
Consolidated in Swiss francs, revenue decreased by CHF 22 million, which can partly be attributed to the negative currency translation effects of CHF 6.5 million. In addition, market growth in China was again driven by Chinese vehicle manufacturers, with whom Autoneum generates only a comparatively low share of revenues. On the other hand, the production volumes of Western and Japanese OEMs declined further in the first half year.
Thanks to the achieved inflation compensation, revenue in local currencies in Business Group SAMEA climbed by CHF 24 million. In terms of volume, the business group was in line with the market, which declined by 2.5%. Due to the continued strong depreciation of the various local currencies in this region, revenue consolidated in Swiss francs was, with CHF 57 million, only slightly above the prior year's level. Let's now have a look on Autoneum's operating performance.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, we compare this year's half-year figures with the figures of the prior period, excluding one-time effects. On group level, Autoneum achieved a substantial improvement in profitability. EBIT considerably increased by CHF 21 million year-on-year, thanks to continuous operational improvements worldwide, but especially in Business Group North America. Correspondingly, Autoneum's EBIT margin grew by 1.3 percentage points.
In Business Group Europe, EBIT climbed by CHF 5.4 million to CHF 27.5 million, which corresponds to an EBIT margin of 4.5%. This positive development was mainly due to operational improvements, synergy effects of the implemented structural adjustments, as well as optimized inflation compensation.
EBIT in Business Group North America rose remarkably by nearly CHF 23 million to almost CHF 21 million, which led to a sharp rise in EBIT margin of 5 percentage points year-on-year. This positive development is a continuation of the significant progress we already achieved in the business group in the second half year, 2023, especially in terms of operations. Let me illustrate this with some examples. First, automation. We have further advanced automation in our production to reduce personal cost and our dependency on fluctuations on the labor market.
Second, labor efficiency. Thanks to optimized production processes in our plants, we continue to increase labor efficiency. Last but not least, scrap reduction. As in all our plants, we placed a particular focus on reducing scrap and material waste from production.
In Business Group Asia, we anticipated and successfully managed the drop in revenue by adjusting our cost structure to the new level as quickly and as far as possible. Thanks to these measures, and despite a decrease in profitability of nearly CHF 5 million, the business group recorded an EBIT of CHF 8 million in the first semester, with a corresponding EBIT margin of 8.3%. Thanks to continuously efficient management of our plants at Business Group SAMEA, we achieved a positive EBIT of nearly CHF 8 million and an EBIT margin that remained at a high level of 13.3%.
Let's move on to the overview of Autoneum's income statement. Overall, we achieved a considerable improvement in profitability in the first semester if we take into account that EBIT in the prior period included a positive one net effect of CHF 34 million.
The same can be said for the generated net result. The financial result in the first half year decreased by around CHF 2 million, which reflects two opposite trends. On the one hand, interest expenses on our interest-bearing debts were more favorable and almost CHF 2 million lower than the same period of the previous year. This is mainly due to the lower debt levels. On the other hand, net foreign exchange losses were CHF 3.5 million higher than in the prior year period.
The net result attributable to Autoneum shareholders came at CHF 28 million, which led to a positive earnings per share of almost CHF 5. In terms of Autoneum's main positions and key figures in the balance sheet, we see an overall rise of total assets compared with the year-end 2023.
This was mainly due to the currency translation effects in the amount of CHF 64 million. The net working capital reflects the usual seasonal fluctuation, with a increase of CHF 39 million. Year-over-year, however, net working capital could be reduced by CHF 71 million. Thanks to the generated free cash flow, net debt, excluding lease liabilities, could be further reduced compared to the year-end 2023, and came to less than CHF 174 million.
This reduction was achieved despite dividend payments in the amount of nearly CHF 26 million to the shareholders of Autoneum and to minority shareholders of our joint ventures. Supported mainly by the achieved net profit and the positive currency translation effects of CHF 30.5 million, which are recognized directly in equity, the equity ratio has improved from 32.1%- 34.4%.
It is thus close to our midterm target of 35%. Shareholders' equity grew accordingly by CHF 53 million to CHF 590 million. This brings me to the cash flow statement. The free cash flow of CHF 39 million reflects Autoneum's strong operating performance throughout the first half year, 2024. Operating cash flow grew considerably in the first semester. In addition to the higher net result, excluding one-time effect, this was mainly due to the significant lower net working capital year-on-year.
Among other factors, this was driven by the reduction of high net working capital purchased with the acquisition of Borgers and renegotiated payment terms with the suppliers of the former Borgers unit. Cash flows used in investing activities rose slightly by CHF 7 million- CHF 29 million.
This excludes the one-off net cash outflow of CHF 96 million for the acquisition of Borgers Automotive in the prior period. Cash flows used in financing activities originate from the net repayment of borrowings, including lease liabilities of CHF 45 million. In addition, there were the aforementioned dividend payments of nearly CHF 26 million.
In the prior year period, cash flow from financing activities were positively impacted by the bridge loan received from the financing of the Borgers acquisition. In conclusion, let me summarize a few key aspects of Autoneum's results for the first half year, 2024. In line with our targets, we managed to further strengthen our balance sheet through continuous improvement of our financial and operational performance.
Steady progress in terms of profitability, as well as our continuously solid free cash flow and net result, reflect the financial stability and reliability Autoneum has shown over the past years in the implementation of our set objectives and measures. With this, I would like to conclude my part of the presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. I will now hand back to Eelco, who will present the outlook for the second half year, 2024.
Thank you, Bernhard. Thank you. As you have heard, the improved financial figures play a key role because they form the basis for Autoneum's future growth. Let me summarize the most important next steps for Autoneum and the business groups on the following slides. We have ambitious targets for 2024 and beyond. Therefore, our focus during the second half of 2024 will be to further boost operational excellence and lay the foundation for future growth.
For Autoneum, a key objective is to drive profitable growth across the business in all regions. We will promote operational excellence in all plants with the tools of the Autoneum production system and drive digitalization. The aim of these measures is to increase operational performance and cost competitiveness. This will drive our objective to significantly improve our performance across all KPIs in all regions.
Finally, we will further develop the team spirit as One Autoneum. This will be supported by the introduction of our new purpose, vision, and mission statement. In parallel, we will address regional topics across all our business groups. Let's start with Europe. In Europe, the organizational integration of the former Borgers Automotive activities into Business Group Europe has been completed on time. Further process optimizations and synergy projects are now in full execution mode.
These will support Business Group Europe in future, and further increase operational efficiency and cost competitiveness. With the dedicated new Business Unit Truck, we are starting to see the first benefits to fully exploit the potential offered by the truck market. Autoneum now offers an attractive, multifunctional, lightweight, and sustainable product range for medium and heavy-duty trucks, as well as for agricultural vehicles.
We want to leverage these potentials and become the world's leading provider of cabin comfort and exterior noise solutions in the commercial vehicle industry. We have made considerable progress at Business Group North America compared to the same period last year. We will continue and drive forward this trend with targeted measures. The further execution of active price and margin management remains a priority for the team in North America.
Another top priority is to win new, profitable business, including cross-selling Autoneum's expanded product portfolio, and we will continue to improve our commercial performance for some of the selected products. In addition, we will drive operational excellence by leveraging the Autoneum production system. Asia, the world's largest automotive market, is one of the most important sales regions for vehicle manufacturers and suppliers. We need to make significant progress here to better exploit the potential offered by this market.
Our plans for Business Group Asia are as follows: We are currently examining possible acquisitions of local automotive suppliers to significantly improve and accelerate direct access to Chinese car manufacturers. Autoneum is already in discussions with specific candidates. In addition, we keep enhancing our cost competitiveness to ensure organic, profitable growth, including the cross-selling of the former Borgers products. In the SAMEA region, we will continue with our very successful business activities.
We are currently achieving the best margins in this region. We will therefore focus on future further growth and winning new business. For example, we see potential in the expansion of our current product range, as well as our commercial vehicle products. Even though inflation, market volatility, and exchange rates remain a key topic here, we are very confident that the local team will continue to manage this successfully.
As I outlined in the first part of my presentation, we introduced the Level Up One-6-8 program together with the management team more than one year ago, to immediately address and tackle urgent issues. Since then, we have made progress in all these areas and have thus created a stable starting position. With all the successful achievements, we have now laid the foundation for our long-term strategy. Over the past few months, we have developed a new strategy in an intensive process involving Autoneum's management team, our board of directors, and many of our employees.
We will name this new strategy program, which includes our new vision, mission, purpose, and values: Level Up. We see this new holistic strategy as a continuation and expansion of our Level Up One-6-8 program, which we initiated last year.
We will present our new holistic strategy at our Capital Markets Day on October 16. Let's have a look at the current market developments. According to the latest S&P forecast for light vehicle production, global volumes in 2024 are expected to decline by 2% to 88.7 million units. This means a clear slowdown compared to the 9.9% rise in 2023. Looking at the forecast for the different regions, volumes in North America and Asia will be just about stable, while those in Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa are expected to decline.
Finally, before we start a question-and-answer session, I would like to give you an update on our guidance for the business year 2024.
According to the market forecast, global automotive production growth, as just mentioned before, will be rather moderate. Based on the forecasted market developments, Autoneum continues to anticipate a revenue of CHF 2.3 billion-CHF 2.5 billion, and a free cash flow in the high upper double-digit million range for 2024, as announced already in March of this year.
However, due to the good margin development, the company could slightly improve the expectations related to the EBIT margin. Autoneum now expects an EBIT margin of 5%-5.5%, instead of a range of 4.5%-5.5%. Dear ladies and gentlemen, you have heard it. Our continuous improvements enable us to further expand our business and shape the future.
I am convinced that by focusing on our strategic priorities and with our innovative product portfolio, we will benefit from current trends and lay the foundation for future profitable growth. I would like to take this opportunity to express, in the name of the Group Executive Board, our sincere gratitude to our employees for their outstanding commitment and loyalty to the company. We would also like to thank our customers, business partners, and all Autoneum shareholders for their loyalty and support. Thank you very much for your attention.