Welcome to the North Media's Annual Report for 2022. To ask a question, please press five-star on your telephone keypad. This call is being recorded. I'll now hand it over to the speakers. Please begin.
Welcome to this presentation of North Media's annual report 2022. My name is Kåre Wigh. I'm the Group CFO, and I will now take you through the presentation, which we will end with a Q&A session. A quick view on today's agenda. We will start with the group highlights, then go on with each of the four businesses in 2022, continue with the strategic priorities for 2023, and end with outlook for 2023 and value generation. After that, the Q&A session. 2022 was a challenging year in many ways. Macroeconomic changes, raw material, and energy prices saw historic high levels, inflation and general increasing uncertainty. Although our businesses provide services which we all need, food, jobs, housing, we were also impacted because our customers were hit. This cyclic development is reflected in our financial results.
In that context, it was satisfactory that we came in at the lower end of our guidance, both the guidance from the beginning of the year and the latest guidance in November. The group financial highlights for the year of 2022 were close to DKK 1 billion in revenue, EBIT of DKK 192 million, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 19%, strong free cash flow of DKK 171 million, and strong capital resources of DKK 764 million. Overall, a strong 2022 where we met our financial targets. Looking ahead into 2023, we see increased uncertainty and low market visibility. Therefore, we have canceled our long-term financial ambitions. It's important to say that we continue to work according to the same long-term plan. We do maintain our ambition to pay out a stable and attractive dividend.
This year, the board of directors propose 4 kroner per share. This is to underline that we see North Media as a robust and solid company. Looking at the big picture, we were largely on track with our strategic initiatives in 2022, though impacted by challenging market conditions. Overall, FK Distribution performed as expected and with good pace. Double-digit growth in the digital platform, minetilbud, an increased focus on sustainability, including establishment of solar parks. BoligPortal also performed as expected and with the same good pace. Ofir lost some momentum in the latter part of the year, while Bekey operations in the core business home care performed as expected, but we did not succeed with the new business areas. Overall, we continue to work on our long-term initiatives while we have increased cost focus to mitigate cost inflation.
Let's now look at the performance of each of the four businesses. Overall, FK Distribution's performance was mainly impacted by the macroeconomic challenges and to a smaller extent, structural changes. In the first half of the year 2022, market volumes were developing according to our expectations. However, in Q three and four, we saw significant changes in the retail sector, with supermarket chains closing or merging. We saw lower leaflet volume driven by high paper prices. Customers, the retail sector, choose smaller formats, fewer pages, and frequency change. On the other side, and this is very important, consumers' interest in leaflets grew due to high inflation and booming prices for energy, food, and other necessities. Revenue from the digital platform, minetilbud, increased, yet it is still a minor part of the business. The platform was used by more than 1.5 million Danes in 2022.
For the full year, 2022, FK Distribution's revenue was down 6% to DKK 837 million, and EBIT reached DKK 185 million. This corresponds to a solid EBIT margin of 22%. From the beginning of the year, it was expected that EBIT margin would be lower than the margin in 2021 due to increased distribution costs. Leaflet volumes were down 6% for the full year. Important takeaway is that the underlying demand for leaflets remained strong and that they proved to remain a very efficient channel for supermarket chains in particular. We distribute leaflets to 1.9 million households weekly. Surveys show that 89% of the recipients use the leaflet to plan their shopping. In February 2022, 67% read leaflets to save money.
Seven months later in September 2022, this number had increased from 67% to 79% that read leaflets to save money. Let's turn to BoligPortal. BoligPortal reported record high revenues in several consecutive quarters in 2022, ending the year at 11% growth, which corresponds to a revenue of DKK 94 million. The main growth drivers were new services and advertising fees from landlords. Examples that underline BoligPortal's growth are, for example, more than 124,000 rental properties on the platform during 2022, more than 20,000 signed lease contracts, more than 21,000 move-in, move-out inspection reports, and more than 2,000 signed lease contracts in Sweden. The integration of Boligmanager, which we acquired in early 2022, was on track, impacting our earnings with DKK 5.5 million in 2022.
Do bear in mind that the EBIT margin in 2022 were at the same level of almost 32% as in 2021 if we exclude the investments in Boligmanager. All in all, BoligPortal showed robustness during a challenging year. We continue to execute on the plan to grow all four revenue streams. The first one is the marketplace, which is the classic BoligPortal business model, and the three new services: tenant services, market data, and landlord services. I would also mention that we have established local presence in Sweden in order to support higher growth. The job portal Ofir saw growth of 11% in 2022, mainly driven by a strong job market in first half of the year.
Ofir actually saw growth of 32% in the first half. There was a record high number of job ads, 46,000, on the portal during the year. Both public sector clients and private sector clients contributed to this growth. Our multichannel strategy continued to prove its worth. Ofir's revenue in 2022 was DKK 40 million. EBIT reached nearly DKK three million. In second half, we saw a declining job market driven by the macroeconomic development. In spite of this declining job market, we continue what we started in 2022. This is why earnings were impacted by business development costs and costs to a new data platform. Let's turn to Bekey. Bekey revenue increased modestly 4%, driven by the home care segment. Revenue reached DKK 25 million.
EBIT improved from last year's minus DKK 29 million to minus DKK 14 million in 2022. This is because we had a one-off expense of DKK 20 million in 2021 to write down installation and development costs. Now, in 2022, we do not capitalize any installation and development costs. Everything is expensed. Recurring license and service fees saw minor growth. It remains key to grow this part to create more stable and predictable revenue streams. Stable operations were the biggest revenue channel home care, but we didn't succeed establishing new customer segments within distributors and properties. In November of 2022, we had a new CEO for Bekey in order to set a new course towards a stronger infrastructure and higher growth pace. With these business highlights, I conclude the 2022 development. Now let's look forward at 2023. The strategic priorities for 2023.
For the group, we navigate with lower visibility but continue to focus on cost and at the same time invest in digitalization of our services and in growth. At group level, we also maintain our ambition to provide attractive, stable dividends and with a strong capital structure, explore opportunities to grow. For each of the four businesses, FK Distribution continue optimizing our operations and invest in particularly minetilbud for further growth. BoligPortal continue the transformation towards a full rental housing platform and expand the business in Sweden. Ofir strengthen the backbone of the business as well as provide a new front end towards the customers and expand the customer base, maintain our multichannel strategy. Bekey, new CEO will strengthen infrastructure and build new revenue streams with distributors and properties. These priorities form the basis of our financial guidance for 2023.
Let's look at what this means in terms of numbers. For the group, we expect revenue of between DKK 920 million and DKK 975 million and an EBIT of between DKK 125 million and DKK 160 million. This is based on an expected revenue of between DKK 760 million and DKK 800 million and an EBIT of between DKK 135 million and DKK 160 million in Last Mile FK Distribution. It's based on an expected revenue of between DKK 160 million and DKK 175 million and an EBIT between DKK 0 and DKK 10 million in Digital Services. I would like to mention that this broader range reflect the uncertainty and lower visibility while we, at the same time, as I just said, continue to work on our long-term plans.
In order to conclude this presentation, let's look at the overall value creation. There are three key takeaways from this presentation. One, our overall 2022 financial results reflect the macroeconomic development rather than structural changes in our sectors. Our strategic direction is unchanged. Last Mile generates solid earnings, and Digital Services represent potential for growth and higher earnings. Two, our capital resources are at DKK 764 million, and our strategic intention to invest and explore strategic growth opportunities is unchanged. Three, this year we propose a dividend of DKK 4 per share, which corresponds to a yield of 7% based on the share price at year-end 2022. Our ambition to pay out annual stable and attractive dividend is unchanged. Operator, please go ahead with the Q&A session.
Thank you. If you have a question for the speakers, please press five star on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press five star again. We'll have a brief pause while questions are being registered. The first question will be from the line of Michael Hole from SEB. Please go ahead. Your line will be unmuted.
Michael, thanks for the presentation. I have four questions. First question is why is Lasse not present in the presentation?
Lasse today, was focusing on some strategic and customer meetings, that we decided that he should focus on.
If we look at FK, which I think is actually a poor guidance, your EBIT fell from 2021 was 28%, 2022 it was 22%, and now you're guiding approximately between 19% and 20%. Can you maybe be a little bit more precise? Why are we dropping in our profit level? I understand the volume level, but why are we dropping in the profit level? Because at the same time, you're saying that the need for distribution is higher because consumers are chasing good offers. Why are we being hit on our margins so hard?
It's a good question, Michael. It is a little bit complex. Let me start with the changes from 2021 to 2022, where we went from 28% EBIT margin to now 22%. This is mainly due to the higher distribution cost that we saw in 2022, where we, in 2022, didn't really increase prices that much. That's the main reason for the hit of the margin in 2022. 2021 was particularly high and probably not something we can repeat. The changes going from 2022 to 2023 is more sort of driven by this uncertainty on the volume of the leaflets. We expect, as we have written, and I think I said it too, the volume was down 6% overall in 2022.
The volume was down 9% in Q4. Q4 in 2021 was also very high, but we have seen higher volume drops in Q3 and Q4. In 2023, we expect around 10% volume drop. This is mainly due to this low visibility where we have seen Aldi supermarket chain in Denmark close. Irma is closing, some chains are reducing their number of pages, the weight, which seasonality do they want to distribute in. Maybe they cut off some of the routes in the more rural areas. It's very difficult to predict this volume development in 2023. The visibility is lower, we can see that the customers, because their costs are increasing so much, are also cutting down on the volumes.
At the same time, our standard prices are up by 9.7%. We have increased prices now in 2023. Overall, with this lower volume, it does impact the bottom line as well. Did that make sense?
Okay, thanks. The next question goes in regard of Bekey. We spoke about the, in my opinion, the nightmare company Bekey several times. I recall a presentation from 2020 where you and Mads said that you expected actually that in 21 we should reach, you can say a zero level line. We are still burning so much cash in this company. Where are the limits? When are we going to close the operation down, sell it, or do something? It looks like a company with no perspective for the future. Where is the red line for this company?
We do absolutely see some perspectives for this company, but I agree that the performance the last couple of years has not been satisfactory. This is also why we now have a new CEO that is setting a new course, because we absolutely need to see some growth in the distributor and the property segments. This is the plan going forward for that. We need to see some growth. Absolutely.
Where's the red line on that call? Is it one year, two year, and then to face the facts? Or how long is the patience from the group?
We can't really put a date or any number of that. We have full confidence in Bekey's perspectives and continue to run after that.
Okay. At least if in the board perspective, you should work with a red line, so it's not with drawing cash forever. Sorry, my final question goes in regards of the dividend. That was probably the most negative surprise for me, because at the last three presentation I have been repeating this question, if we would be certain that the guidance you did on the dividend would be steady. You actually confirmed it at all three occasions regardless of the investment results from 2022, because I knew that your capital safety would be under pressure. Why are you choosing to cut DKK 20 million in dividends and then replacing it with additional investments in your investment portfolio?
The dividend and the reduction of the dividend going from DKK 5 to DKK 4, which I still think is an attractive dividend, with a nice yield, is due to the lower visibility going forward. As I've said before, and I still will say that the dividend is not based on anything that happens on the capital resources and the gain or loss in the investments in external shares. It's all based on the perspectives of the four, on the growth of the four businesses. Right now the perspectives are a little bit more blurry than we saw earlier in 2022. It really also reflects how things have developed.
If you look at our guidance actually at half year, we actually increased the guidance a little bit, and then three months later we actually reduced a little bit back. We put quite a lot of effort in trying to guide as precise as possible, but it just showed how things changed and turned worse in Q3, and even worse in Q4 because of this environment that we see everywhere.
Kåre, you have a huge capital buffer. The question is not if you can allocate it or not. You can allocate it, of course, with the capital buffer you have. It's a choice where you actually choose to increase your investments instead of loading out or paying out dividends for your shareholders. This has nothing to do with the blurry of the operation. It's a strategic choice you're taking to lower the dividend and then increase your investments. My question is concerning the capital structure.
The dividend is a balance between paying out, if you look at the EBIT excluding, or net profit excluding the losses on the revenue, on the external shares, you will see that. This is why we, what we use when we discuss and decide on the dividend. The profits of the year should be a balance between paying out to the shareholders and also consolidating the company because we do look into some years where we will need to invest in new business areas and to grow the business. This is still our ambition.
I realize that we have not really realized or succeeded in buying anything in the dry powder a couple of years. Going back to the new management structure that we established in April in 2022, was exactly why we needed to strengthen the strategic capacity of the group level in order to put more pace on the strategic investments and acquisitions. This is still the plan. In order to do that, we need capital. We try to balance paying out to the shareholders while also giving the company and the resources to grow further and build new business. That's the balance we try to do.
Okay. Thanks, Kåre.
Thank you, Michael.
There are no further questions at this moment. I'll now hand it back to the speakers for any written questions.
Yes. I have here a number of questions. There's one that says: "What are your reflections on buying back shares rather than paying out dividends at the current share price levels? Thank you." It goes a little bit with the question we had before from Michael, our priority is to pay out dividend rather than do share buybacks. We do evaluate it from time to time. It's now two years since we did share buybacks. It's always a sort of a challenge also with the little bit, we don't want to reduce the liquidity further with the number of shares that are free on the market.
Our priority is to pay out a dividend and every now and then also do share buybacks. There's a question: "What are your thoughts on divesting at Bekey?" I think I just talked about Bekey, and as we believe in the prospects of Bekey, we have no thoughts about divesting it. There's another question here on share buybacks, which I think I have just been talking about. There's one person here asking: "Why don't you consider using leverage?" Will you elaborate a bit on that question? I don't see any further questions coming in. I will say thank you all for joining today's call.
As you can see from this slide, we have a couple of presentations lined up, and I hope to see you at all of these or some of these events. As always, you are very welcome to call me or write me an email if you have any questions. With that, I wish you all a very good day. Thank you.