Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our webinar. My name is Valdo Kalm, and Andrus Ait, our Chief Financial Officer. We are presenting Q2 results, and as usual after the presentation, there are possibility to ask questions. I will start, and then Andrus will take over. Q2 generally was quite active and quite good quarter in terms of numbers also, and our main events or actions are there. I guess it was quite important decision what we made together with our council or board of directors to invest to Paldiski South Harbor around EUR 50 million for wind park maintenance and installation port. I guess it's very important investment for the future, for future growth, because wind parks in offshore or in sea will come. That's not the question.
The question is of when and the timing. I guess to be, how to say, leader in our region is very important. We also already signed couple of Memorandum of Understandings with developers, and we also got funding from CEF Military Mobility around EUR 20 million. Therefore, the investment is supported by European Union funding also. Therefore, there is a business case on the table, and we really believe in this long-term business and growth possibility. In Q2 and also in six months, we had record volume of Ro-Ro cargo. That's good news because we still see the decline from liquid bulk due to the war, and it's very good that we see the growth of Ro-Ro and also containers.
Also good news was that there was termination of Worldwide Cargo Establishment's contractual penalty lawsuit, what we had during the three years already, and that was positive for us. Transport Administration ordered additional trips for regular summertime, also gives extra revenue and profits. We had virtual AGM or voting of general meeting resolutions, including the new supervisory board in Q2. Of course, we or our owners made a dividend decision, and we paid out dividends on a level EUR 25.5 million. I guess also a good sign that even in difficult times, we have possibility with our good cash flows pay out good dividends and of course continue with our investment plan. We signed one more with Port of Gdynia for hydrogen solutions.
Before we had already cooperation in Hamburg, but now additionally, Gdynia is interesting for us that we will have in this region know-how and more complex solution for the future hydrogen technique. Trends in Q2 by business segments. Q2 was strong in our passenger business. Honestly saying the growth was bigger than we expected in Q2. That means in passenger numbers, some 200% or 3x more passengers than last year. Of course, we saw good revenue growth and it affects our EBITDA level. Some growth in rental fees, but on passenger side area, that's not only the regular lines, that's also the cruise business what is recovering little bit better than we expected, and that continues.
On cargo side, we saw a decline in volumes by 20%, but it comes mainly from liquid bulk and also dry bulk. It's fertilizers, as you know. But the good news is that our revenue stayed on a level from last year, and that's due to the good growth on Ro-Ro and containers. That means that the growth of Ro-Ro and containers basically compensating the decrease from liquid bulk. Sanctions to Russia are valid. And it's quite difficult to say what will happen in the end of the year, but I will come back to that. On ferry business, we have seen good growth also in Q2. It comes from additional trips from regular and from indexation.
On the other segment, we're reporting our Botnica activities also, revenue growth from indexation and stable utilization rate. Botnica are working now in Canada as usual, and everything goes as we planned. To the volumes. As we already mentioned, we had strong Q2, tripled our passenger numbers. Mainly it comes, of course, from Helsinki route, but also last year we didn't have at all passengers from Stockholm and cruise passengers. Therefore, this year we have both. If you see the six months, then also the recovery shows quite promising. Again, it's difficult to predict what will happen in autumn.
It all depends on our COVID situation, but so far we see quite a huge interest of tourists, mainly from Helsinki, but also cruise is back quite well. That means the number of cruise passengers and the number of ships are higher than we prognosed, honestly. On cargo side, as I already mentioned, liquid bulk and dry bulk going down, but Ro-Ro and containers increasing. That shows in one hand a quite strong import-export situation in Estonia. In other hand, already when we reported Q1, we saw the same trend that there are some new Ro-Ro and containers coming to our ports. That means there are really new cargo owners and new cargo flows.
That means they found our ports in Muuga and in Paldiski, and it's definitely new cargos flowing mainly from and in Scandinavia. Shipping volumes, we describe that there is also good recovery on our passenger side and on vehicles. On Botnica, we have had very stable picture. Here you see the charter days and utilization rate, but it's very stable. About future, here we're really talking about this year's future outlook. It's very difficult to have very long visibility. As we mentioned, passenger business recovered better than expected, but it's still autumn in front of us, and it's difficult to say. We hope that there will be no such a total closed situation as we had previous year.
Of course, we have very good cooperation with our shipping operators, also on state level to avoid such a total shutting down. Therefore, we hope that we will have better situation than last autumn, but still difficult to predict. About the sanctions to Russia, Belarus sanctions are already in force. It's all about the total embargo to Russia. If there will be total embargo by the end of the year or in the end of the year, then of course, we see the future decrease, and we reported already the maximum effect, the effect of that. If there will be some kind of different decisions on Russian cargo, I mean, mainly it's now liquid bulk. That's the main category.
We will have more better visibility for the next year. Of course, there are mega trends on rising input costs. That's energy and then labor, mainly. Of course, we have our efficiency plan in place. We're working with the other sources of energy, and that's definitely ongoing. All right. That's very brief. Yeah. I would like to give to Andrus Ait about the numbers.
Thank you, Valdo. Here are the financial results for the group, both for the second quarter and for six-month period. As Valdo already mentioned, the first half of 2022 turned out to be successful, especially in passenger harbor segment. We had almost 3x more passengers, however, at the same time, the cargo volumes decreased. The positive effect from passenger harbor were higher than the negative impact from cargo harbor. In the second quarter, the revenue increased by 25.2% and amounted to EUR 30.3 million.
The growth was mainly supported by higher number of passengers, but we had also cruise ship calls this year in the second quarter when in the last year we didn't have any cruise ship calls in first half of the year. This has also helped to support growth in revenue. In ferry segment there was growth due to the indexation. Adjusted EBIT increased in the second quarter by 38.2% to EUR 15.4 million. The growth was more than EUR 4 million and was supported by passenger harbor segment and by ferry segment. In lower extent also there was a good result from our joint venture company, Green Marine.
Adjusted EBIT margin rose from 42%- 50.7%, and operating profit grew by 75% and amounted to EUR 9.1 million. Similar to the last year, in the second quarter, we paid out the dividends, but the dividend payout was EUR 5 million higher than last year, and therefore the income tax to dividends increased by 25.5%. Profit for the period was in the second quarter 3x higher than last year in the second quarter, mainly due to the good results in passenger harbor segment. The investments remained at the same level as last year. When we look at the results of six months of 2022, we see quite similar results. All the main figures has increased.
Revenue increased by 16% and amounted to EUR 57.1 million. Adjusted EBIT growth was almost 20%. Operating profit was EUR 16.3 million, and the growth was 31.3%. Profit for the period increased by 44.1% and amounted to EUR 12.2 million. Investments were EUR 1 million higher than last year, the first half of the year. The main projects were made mainly in Old City Harbour, where we are reconstructing the surrounding area of Terminal D. This project should be completed in the middle of September. We also in Muuga Harbour improved the Ro-Ro service capacity.
As we look to the results by segment-wise, we see that the passenger harbour is the one where the most growth has taken place. The revenue grew in all our segments, even in cargo harbour segment. In passenger harbour segment, the revenue growth was supported by a higher number of passengers, therefore we had more passenger revenue from passenger fees. Also cruise ship calls has supported the growth in revenue. This year we had in the first half of the year, 68 cruise ship calls with 54,000 passengers on board. The load factor of the vessels is 3x lower than previous years, but the number is recovering quite good.
In Passenger Harbour segment also the rental income increased, and there was mainly two factors which influenced the growth. First, last year we made discounts in rental fees due to the pandemic situation. In the third quarter last year, we took into use the cruise terminal, and this has helped also increase the revenue in Passenger Harbour segment. In Cargo Harbour segment, the revenue remained at the same level as last year, both in second quarter and on six-month period. Although the cargo volumes dropped, mainly due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and, as a result of that, there was drop in liquid bulk and dry bulk.
As Valdo already mentioned, Ro-Ro and containers volumes increased and the cargo charges for Ro-Ro and containers are per unit higher and therefore the revenue was at same level as year before. In the ferry segment, the revenue increased by EUR 1 million due to the indexation, and we also made extra trips due to the higher demand from Transport Administration. In the other segment, where we show the results of the Botnica mainly, we managed to increase the revenue as well. It is important to point out that in other segment there is a seasonal effect.
Botnica ends the icebreaking services for the state in the middle of April, and the charter work starts in the end of June. Therefore the revenue in the second quarter was this year and has been in previous years lower than in other quarters during the year. On EBIT level, the passenger harbor segment is the one also where the most growth takes place. In cargo harbor segment, the EBIT decreased due to the cost pressure, and the pressure came mainly from electricity prices and energy prices. In the ferry segment, we see EBITDA growth by EUR 500,000, and this was...
It is important to mention that last year there was elevated cost level due to the maintenance work of the main engines of the ferries. When we take this out from last year, then the level would be same as this year. In the other segment, we managed to achieve a positive result in the second quarter, mainly due to the better result of our associate company Green Marine. On the six months level, we see quite similar pattern. Revenue has increased in all segments, and EBIT increased in three segments out of four. The growth was the highest in passenger harbor segment. On cash flow side, we see cash from operating activities increased by EUR 2.8 million.
It was mainly attributable to higher revenue. Cash receipts from goods and services increased more than payments to the suppliers. This year, we paid out income tax on dividends. Last year, we paid out dividends in June, and according to the Estonian tax legislation, dividend income tax must be paid out on the next month. Therefore, the results of 2021 do not contain the payment of income tax. Cash used in investing activities decreased by EUR 4.2 million, although we said that investment level was even higher than last year in the first half of 2022.
To explain that, in May we received a grant payment from EU funds as we presented. We submitted last year the final report of the TWIN-PORT project and the report was approved in the beginning of this year, and we received payment in May. Just a reminder, in TWIN-PORT 2 project, we renovated the Terminal D building and built the Admiralty Bridge. Free cash flow increased by EUR 7.6 million. Cash used in financing activities increased by EUR 5 million, and the growth is mainly attributable to the higher dividend payment. The loan repayments remained at the same level.
Net cash flow increased by EUR 2.6 million, and net debt at the end of the period was almost EUR 19 million lower due to the loan repayments and more cash on bank accounts. On our balance sheet, we don't see any significant change compared to the year-end period. We had a bit less cash on bank accounts. Debt has decreased due to the loan repayments and other liabilities. In other liabilities, we see growth due to the grant payment which we received in May. With that, we will conclude our presentation. We have extra.
Two extra slides about revenue generation and EBITDA generation, but those are just for information if anyone have more interest in that. We will be back in a few minutes. You can send us questions by typing them in. On the right-hand side, you can see the question mark button. By pressing there, you can enter your question. We have also two questions sent up front. Those questions we will answer at first. We will be back in a few minutes. Thank you.
All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to answer the questions, and the first question was sent already in advance. When can we expect the news about detailed planning in Old City Harbour? I would like to say two things.
What kind of activities we have had in Q2 and these are quite important. The first is that during the summer we basically fixed the traffic solution, the main streets and how to say areas in front of our D terminal and cruise area.
That's very important, and that's what we fixed together with the city government. Now, we hope that in Q3 there will be public, they actually put them public. It's really up to city government, but they have to do it, and hopefully they will do it. That's very important step because after that, of course, we take comments from the neighbors, but there are not so many neighbors. It's very much of city around us, and we hope if the public process but last some weeks will lower, then we are in a quite a good move. Another important step what we had during the summer is to really fixing the tramline, and it was just yesterday, the signing of contract.
Now it's clear that it's coming, and it's also influencing our detailed planning and traffic solutions in front and around the A Terminal. These are such new developments.
The second question, has the idea of paying dividends more than once a year been considered? Thank you for the question. Yes, paying out dividends more than once a year, we have considered, but taking into account that we have more than 22,000 investors, in case we would pay out dividends more than once a year, there would be extra cost for the company. This has been the main reason why we haven't decided this over and still paying out dividends once a year.
Next question, do you expect Ro-Ro and containers to compensate not only sales but profits too? Honestly, we are quite close. It now really depends on volumes. If we're getting still good volumes and then increase on that. Then, of course, there are some costs related to that.
The containers and Ro-Ro volumes has increased about 10% in every quarter. When this will continue, then a positive effect to profit will appear as well. Currently, as Valdo mentioned, we have a cost pressure from energy costs. The costs increased 60% year-on-year, and this also impacted us in a large scale. Therefore, we have to look those two factors combined, the growth of containers and Ro-Ro and the growth of costs.
Yeah, we are quite close because we know the profitability of each segment or different cargos. Can you comment on the trends seen in liquid and dry bulk volumes so far in Q3? I guess we will see in Q3 quite a similar picture. If we're talking about the sanctions, additional sanctions, that these decisions we will see only in Q4. I guess before that, hopefully the situation will be quite stable.
What is your latest estimate of the impact of sanctions against Russia and EBIT? When, after the first quarter, we stated that the total impact to the results could be somewhere around EUR 6 million on EBIT and revenue level. As Valdo mentioned, the recovery has been better than we expected, first half of the year. Therefore, we would say that the negative impact is lower than we estimated then. We would like not to state the exact number because there are so many drivers and factors which can influence the final result for the year. What we can say that the number is definitely lower than EUR 6 million.
Right. How much worse do you expect Q3 cargo results to be? As I already mentioned, these sanctions, what are in force, they are valid already now, I mean in Q2. Therefore, I guess we will have quite a similar picture, and the new sanctions will come in the end of the year. What is the anticipated timeline for the construction of the wind farm quay? There we have quite a concrete plan. As decision is made, now we planning to open the tender. Of course, that's international tender because it's a huge investment. We have to be ready with the quay 2025. That's the timeline. Right. What is your anticipated CapEx level for this year?
I guess it's as we planned, no extra CapEx and on a level around EUR 70 million.
Yeah.
We can answer the questions and give the exact answer if you send us email. Yeah. We don't like to make mistake here, but the level should be similar to the last year. It's under EUR 20 million. It's between EUR 15 million and EUR 20 million, but we will send a concrete number. When the quay for wind farm should be completed and when you expect to start receiving revenues and profits? Yes. We expect to be ready in 2025, and we believe that we're already working on that. We will have already a contract with developers before that. That means that we expect to have revenues and then profits from the same year, 2025.
Could you repeat what do you plan for the share of own financing for the new port in Paldiski? I understood the total investment of EUR 50 million and already EUR 20.8 million secured. Is there any other support money you can benefit from?
Thank you for the question. No, there is no other benefit money which we can use. We definitely plan to use also loans to finance the project. It depends on actual cash flows in next years during the project. Usually we have used about 40% of loan money and other is own capital.
Thank you.
How large part of the Ro-Ro cargo originates to Russia? Any sanctions that'll kill on Ro-Ro cargo? The Ro-Ro part to Russia is small. There are not any such sanctions towards Ro-Ro cargo, but there are sanctions to certain companies, owners and type of equipment. Therefore, yes, the government bodies, I mean, Tax and Customs Board, they checking also Ro-Ro going to Russia or back, but it's quite a tiny percentage. They checking that. Please comment the situation with ammonium nitrate in Muuga Harbor. What does your risk analysis show? I would like to mention that, by the Estonian law, the.
Our terminals, that means in this case DBT or our fertilizer terminal, is responsible for all the risks because they considered as enterprise with high danger. They have such a clear responsibility. Of course, we also made integrated risk analysis for the Muuga Harbor. We have that, and we're renewing it all the time. What we know that government bodies checking the situation, and we also sometimes checking, discussing with DBT. That's the terminal for fertilizers. The situation is stable. They have possibilities or resources to do all the maintenance work. Therefore, they pay us the rental fees. They have certain possibilities for pay the bills, and therefore situation is under control.
We believe that during the month there will be decision from government, but that's not only the Estonian government, that's also the Swiss government, because the other part of the company are in and registered in Switzerland. Therefore, there must be such a common decision how to manage with this ammonium nitrate. Of course, there is aim to sell it or just remove it from Muuga. By the latest news, hopefully during the month there will be decision and DBT as a terminal is ready to act immediately to sell it or remove the fertilizers. That's the situation. Right. With that,
Question more.
There is some questions. I guess that was the last question. Thank you for your interest. Thank you listening us, and of course, thank you for trust in these difficult times, and see you again in next reports. Thanks.
Thank you.