Good morning. Welcome to our webinar. My name is Valdo Kalm, and Andrus Ait is our CFO. And as usual, we would like to start with main events in Q1. Q1 was a stabilization quarter, especially in terms of cargo volume. That means we get basically the same volumes as last year. And positive is that containers and dry bulk made the growth. And also RORO is stabilizing and shows already growth in April. Then we made the offer of submission of the tender to provide ferry service in the next period. And today we can say that we won the tender for the next period, starting from autumn 2026. That's very important for us because ferry business and operation is very stable business.
And we managed to give the offer generally on the same level in terms of margins, what we had, and what we have in this period. Then we made the announcement of the competition to development areas in Muuga Harbour . It's a special area with quay, and we're waiting there, especially production. But we can have any different goods. Therefore, we are very interested in this tender. It's ongoing, and definitely it's interesting for the future developments. And then reorganization of proceedings for MPG AgroProduction initiated by the court. It's ongoing, but at least it shows us some positive development. And also we got positive judgment in dispute with SLK and Väinamere Liinid . Our supervisory board extended the contract for our commercial officer, Margus Vihman, and also appointed the new member of the board, Rene Pärt.
Previously, Rene was also in charge of new projects, growth projects. Now, with that step, we even more will focus for growth and new possibilities. And really, after the crisis, there are a lot of new things on the table. And I'm really glad to have now more business growth projects in a board level. Trends in Q1. On passenger side, we have seen continuous growth in passenger numbers, 5%, which quite a good trend. Although we have seen decline in passenger vessels, but that's due to the docking works for the Eckerö vessel, Finlandia. Now it's back in operation. And I guess these dock works are very important also for us as a port. Therefore, they are back in business. On cargo, as I mentioned, in Q1, we saw the stabilization. That's very important.
Important is also that we have seen a small increase in vessels. As I mentioned, there are growth in containers and bulk, still decrease in liquid bulk. But the biggest group is nowadays for us, it's RORO and containers. We're focusing on that. At least here, we see continuous growth also, as I said in April. Ferry business is very stable, with certain increase in passengers and vehicles. Also, under the other, Botnica shows stable usage plus revenue. Here are the numbers more precisely from Q1. On right-hand side of the slide, we would again say that from the previous years, it's extremely important to have a good number of vessel calls because our revenue and profits are there. On cargo side, stabilization on cargo volumes.
Again, on the right side of the slide, we would just show that the number of vessels is quite stable. In terms of cargo volumes, I would just like to say that more and more we're thinking and rethinking the pricing models because now we're making the offers to the new business. That's the new quay and usage of this quay in Paldiski. Here, we're using more flat-rate model. Therefore, in the end of the day, it's of course important to have revenues and profits. Of course, we will follow the tons and volumes, but more and more, we're thinking out of the box to try to re-engineer the pricing, and replace it with flat rates, what is more stable. Shipping volumes are very stable, with increase of passengers.
And last year was a record year in terms of passengers and vehicles. And same for Botnica shows stable development. Future outlook. We would like to see and we hope that passenger business will recover also this year. That means that by the end of the year we would like to have growth compared to the last year. And of course we're gaining the magic number 10 million what we had pre-COVID time. We're working heavily to have new RORO container lines in our ports in Muuga and Paldiski. And the good news is that months ago we signed the agreement with X-Press Feeders Line for Muuga. It's a huge shipping company. And interesting is that they ordered 14 new container ships and the fuel is methanol. Therefore it's really a green reform in shipping.
This new, one of the new vessels will enter to our port in August this year. Therefore, we also have to be ready for bunkering. That's not the obligation, but we are interested to be attractive as a port to bunker the green fuels. X-Press Feeders will bring quite the huge container ship to Muuga. We see increasing interest towards offshore wind farms-based harbor. We made already some concrete offers to Poland, to Lithuania. As you remember, then this new part of the harbor and quay will work for entire Baltic Sea. That means we would like to serve all the Baltic Sea countries. We see the increase in Finland, in Sweden, I mean, in terms of wind farm parks on offshore. Therefore, the situation is very interesting. For us, we're investing just now in Paldiski.
All the timetable is in line. We would like to finish this project by the end of next year. And of course, at the same time, we're negotiating with some companies to use our backyard or industrial park, mainly in Paldiski, but also in Muuga for the production of components of offshore wind farms. In shipping, especially in offshore market, we also see quite a good increase. As you remember, we're also working on a design of new offshore ship. No decisions yet, but the market is very interesting. We're working on business plan and design. And also, this year shows the attractiveness of this business. Botnica got a five-year project with Baffinland. Baffinland is our old partner, very reliable partner. But at the same time, also, Botnica works this summer in BP or British Petroleum.
Therefore, summer is covered. And last year, we made many investments on Botnica. And of course, there was some additional cost. The ship is in a very good order. And I believe that this year, we don't have any extra cost. We just have to work efficiently. And we're preparing for the real estate model. And hopefully, we would like to introduce the first plot for the tender end this year. And there is already ongoing a preparation for reducing the state shareholding. Later on, Andrus will give some explanation. But basically, in general terms, we would like to be ready with plan in September. There is no push on timing. It's very important to have a good timing from our side to show better results and then, of course, show the growth project with impact.
But generally, yeah, we're starting the preparation about the structure about the activities on SPO. Yeah, Andrus. Welcome.
Thank you, Valdo. And I will conclude with the financial results for the first quarter 2024. The first quarter, the number of passengers increased, and cargo volume stabilized. But despite of that, the revenue decreased by almost 2% and amounted to EUR 27.9 million. Main effect came from passenger harbors, where we had less ship calls because of dock works, especially the Eckerö Line ship Finlandia, which was absent from the route for almost one month. Also, Tallink made shorter dockings for their ships. And this also impacted our revenue. Also, in cargo harbors, the cargo charges declined. There was impact from, actually from, IFRS requirements. As we're taking into account estimations or forecast for the full or entire year, last year we expected higher cargo charges and cargo volumes from liquid bulk.
This year, those expectations and forecasts are lower. Due to that, we expect lower cargo volumes and cargo charges. We have to take it into account already in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 6% and amounted to EUR 20.7 million. In addition to the lower revenue, the impact came mainly from the ferry segment, where we had higher fuel costs because of the severe ice conditions in the first quarter this year. Last year, there wasn't any ice. So, the fuel consumption and fuel costs increased. We had also higher personnel expenses because we made salary changes during last year. So the reference level last year in the first quarter was lower. Those changes were made mainly in the ferry segment. And we had also this year higher provisions for bonuses in the first quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased from 48% to 46%. Operating profit increased by 3%, up to EUR 7 million. If adjusted EBITDA decreased, then on operating profit there was impact from depreciation and amortization, which was higher in the first quarter last year as we made a write-off of the non-current assets as there was the amendment of accounting rules. Income tax, we didn't pay any income tax as we pay out dividends in the second quarter, like last year. The dividend payout will be next Friday, on the 17th of May this year. Profit for the period was EUR 5.2 million, which is 9% less than the year before. Here we can also say that financial costs were also higher because of higher EURIBOR rates.
Investments for the period were EUR 18 million, almost, which is tenfold higher than the first quarter last year. The main project, which is ongoing, is the construction in Paldiski South Harbour, where we are building the new quay intended to serve offshore wind farms. And we had also one dockwork for one of our ferries in the first quarter. Here are the results by segment-wise. We see that the revenue increased in the ferry segment and in the segment other and decreased in the cargo harbors and in passenger harbors. In passenger harbors, the impact came mainly from fewer vessel calls. Like all already explained, Finlandia was absent from the route. And also, EBITDA decreased. But EBITDA decreased in euros less than on the revenue level; the drop was less.
We can say that costs in this segment decreased year-on-year. In the cargo harbor segment, there was a slight decrease in revenue because of lower cargo charges. And also there was a slight decrease in vessel use because we had more vessel calls, but the gross tonnage of the vessels decreased, mainly because of the tankers, which were smaller. And therefore the gross tonnage decreased. And this is the main factor which impacts the vessel use. In the cargo harbors, the EBITDA increased because of the lower costs. In the ferry segment, the revenue increased because of indexation. In indexation, the indexation was a bit lower than in previous quarters, as the consumer price index increased and salary index also. But the fuel cost index decreased.
So there was controversial impact inside of the indexation. And in the ferry segment, EBITDA decreased the most because of higher cost of fuel and also because of the changes in salaries during last year. In the segment other, revenue increased a bit because of the leap year. The charter period was one day longer in winter period as we are serving the we're providing icebreaking services for the transportation administration in Estonia. And EBITDA decreased a bit because of maintenance works. Last year, we collected the maintenance works and made it together with the dock works. This year, they are more spread between the different months. On cash flow side, we see that cash from operating activities has increased by EUR 2.7 million and amounted to EUR 16.1 million.
The main impact came from the Baffinland project, which we concluded in the fourth quarter last year. But we received the payment in the first quarter of this year. Last year, we didn't. In the first quarter last year, we didn't have such impact. We received the money already in the year of 2022. Cash used in investing activities reflects the high investment level and was -EUR 18.4 million. Free cash flow was -EUR 2.3 million because of investments mainly. Cash used in financing activities was -EUR 5.4 million, which is EUR 1 million more than in the first quarter last year. And this includes the impact of higher EURIBOR rates. Net cash flow was -EUR 7.6 million, which is EUR 15 million less than in the first quarter last year. The main impact comes from investments.
Net debt at the end of the period was EUR 148 million, which is almost EUR 16 million more than the first quarter last year. Last year, we had higher level of cash on bank accounts. It was almost EUR 50 million this year. The level was EUR 20 million. The gross debt itself has decreased. We have paid back loans in the amount of EUR 14 million during the year. On financial position, cash on bank accounts reflects the negative cash flow compared to the year-end period. Non-current assets have increased because of investments. There was offsetting effect from depreciation. Equity has increased in amount of profit of the period. We paid back loans and reimbursed bonds in the amount of EUR 3 million. Therefore, the debt has decreased. But with that, I will conclude this presentation.
We have some extra slides, like always, about revenue and EBITDA generation. You can close them later if you have any deeper interest. We will make a short break. We have some questions sent up front. Then those questions, we will address at first. And then we will take questions which you will submit throughout Teams. We will be back soon, Thank .
W elcome back. The first question, which we received up front, the meeting or webinar, please elaborate on the preparation for the reduction state shareholding. How far are you in the process? Are there advisors working actively on this today? What is the target size to be sold? The state has announced that it is ready to reduce its shareholding to 51%. It means 60% of the equity. Taking into account the current stock price, the amount of SPO would be about EUR 50 million. Regarding the advisors or the process, we are in the early stage. We have met with some potential advisors. We are putting together or drawing up the schedule. It will be ready in the third quarter this year.
And when it will happen, this SPO, we see that the first time for it could be the second half of next year or even the year 2026. Why so? Because we see that we need to do preparations at first. Also, the timing is important to show improvement of the results and also developments and good financial impact from growth projects. Second questions. Please give an update on the real estate project, and the description of the business model. We hope that the detailed planning process will be approved and the detailed plans imposed by the city government by the end of this year. So, right after the implementation of the detailed imposition of the detailed plans, we are ready to put up one tender regarding one plot.
And after that, we are going on with the landlord model during the next years. We see that the pace of the development, real estate development, depends on the real estate market situation and how the market can absorb the new volumes or square meters. So, it depends on the market situation.
Is your base scenario for 2024 cargo volumes to be in line with 2023? The answer is yes by the results from Q1. And is your base scenario for this year's passenger volumes to grow around 5%? The answer is yes. We expect quite a similar growth around 5% by the end of the year.
Please give an update on the planned investments for 2024 and 2025. And also, what is the normalized annual maintenance investment, excluding the growth projects? This year, we see that the investment level will be for about EUR 45 million-EUR 50 million. The main project is Paldiski South Harbour. In the Paldiski South Harbour, the new quay. But we have also seen that the smaller projects, the construction prices, have come down. And therefore, the investment level would be lower than we expected in the beginning of this year. But it will be between EUR 45 million and EUR 50 million.
For the next year, we see that the investment level will be somewhere 30-35 million euros, once again, mainly in connection with Paldiski South Harbour, and the new quay in this harbor. The regular investments for the maintenance have been about 15 million euros per year.
What could be the financial impact from the new development area in Muuga Harbour in a positive scenario? Yeah, we are in the middle of the tender, but very generally speaking, it depends a little bit on the model of use. Are they going to use quay also what is available or just land? Then approximately because the land is not so big, it's seven hectares, we are talking about a million or less. But again, it depends on a model and negotiations. What is the outlook for vessel calls growth in 2024? We see small growth. It comes mainly from cargo business. We have seen the growth in Q1. And as I already expected, there are some new agreements.
Therefore, we are talking about one-digit growth. What is the possible to reach historic 55% EBITDA margin, or more? Or it's now the new normality, how to say? If we will succeed with our growth projects in coming years, then I guess 50%+ is again reachable.
Yes. Now, what could be the amount of annual investments in 2024 and 2025? This we already described and elaborated.
Has there been any LNG flows yet? I guess the question is about our new quay and Pakri port. The answer is no. We are ready to take the tanker. And all the equipment installed by Elering and then Varude Keskus is completed by the end of Q1. Therefore, we are ready. And of course, we already take the vessels by commercial agreement. But no concrete tankers or LNG flows yet.
It seems that we are done with the questions. So thank you for participating.
Thank you. And have a nice weekend. All the best.