Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the JCDecaux 2022 full year results presentation. I will now hand over to Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of Executive Board and Co-CEO. Sir, please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone, good morning to those of you joining from the U.S. Welcome to our 2022 full year results conference call, which is also being webcast. Our speakers today are Jean-François Decaux, Co-Chief Executive Officer, David Bourg, Group Chief Financial, IT and Administrative Officer, and myself. Rémi Grisard, Head of Investor Relations, is also attending today's conference call. 2022 was another year of rebound with significant year-on-year improvements in our metrics. Revenue grew by 20.8%, plus 16.6% organically year-on-year. We achieved strong operating leverage through a tight cost management, containing the increase of our cost base at a much slower pace than our revenue growth. Our operating margin reached EUR 602.9 million.
Our EBIT improved by close to EUR 200 million, our net income improved by nearly EUR 150 million and turned positive, reaching EUR 132.1 million. Our free cash flow has remained positive with rising Funds From Operation as the activity picked up, combined with contained working capital variations despite strong revenue growth and some higher CapEx. Including bolt-on acquisitions of nearly EUR 100 million this year, our net debt grew slightly. David will, as usual, provide you more details later in his presentation of our financial results. Moving to the next Slide, you can see that revenue growth continued throughout the year despite macroeconomic concerns and mobility restriction in China. The change in comparison base explains the slowdown in year-on-year revenue growth rate by quarter.
We have now bridged half the gap with 2019, moving from -29.4% in 2021 to -14.7% in 2022, despite the historically low levels of mobility in China. Outside China, our growth is stronger, as evidenced by an 8.6% increase for 2022 and less than a 3% decrease in Q4. This demonstrates the resilience of our media as well as our capacity to rebound and grow, especially once restrictions are lifted. As shown on Slide five, revenue growth is balanced across segments, with all segments achieving double-digit growth rates in 2022.
Transport recorded the highest growth with a +22.5% year-on-year increase, driven by the recovery of passenger numbers, both in airports and ground transportation systems, despite the significant impact of mobility restriction in China, which explains the large gap of -34.3% compared to 2019. Transport is poised to be an important driver of growth once mobility obviously recovers. Street Furniture growth rate of 21.3% year-on-year has exceeded 2019 levels by +3.5% due to strong demand from advertisers on the momentum created by digitization. Billboards, though smaller for our company, also grew by 21.3% year-on-year and remains well-positioned, especially in countries with high levels of digitization. In Australia, revenues have exceeded 2019 levels and growth in the U.K. is strong.
All regions grew strongly except Asia-Pacific, which was affected again by mobility restriction in China. North America is back to high growth mode with the increase of air traffic and the end of the effect of the loss of our New York airports contract. Europe is the strongest performer and is back to levels close to 2019 revenues as a whole, and above 2019 for Street Furniture activity. Some countries in Europe, including Germany or the Netherlands, Belgium, have traded above already the level of 2019. Asia-Pacific is down 2.4% due to its high share of Transport activity, and the more important is the mobility restrictions going on at that time in the region this year, especially in China.
Very resilient and digitizing Street Furniture makes up more than 50% of our revenues, while Transport remains below its usual 40% at 32% for 2022. Before COVID, around 50% of our revenue came from Europe. This figure has reached 57.5% this year due to the rebound of street furniture, especially in Europe, and the impact of mobility restriction in Asia-Pacific. Rest of Europe is our top region, accounting for 29.8% of our revenues. Asia-Pacific remains the second-largest region, accounting for 21.8% of our revenue. France is our top performing country, and China contribution to revenue has fallen to around 11.5%, compared to more than 17% in 2019. On Slide 8, you can see our revenue breakdown by client categories Our client portfolio is highly diversified, with the top 10 clients representing less than 40% of our revenue this year. As you can see, all top 10 sectors were growing, especially our number 1 client category, Fashion, Personal Care and Luxury Goods, which is represented here in this picture of the Dubai Airport. At 17% of total revenue growing by 41% year-on-year. Sectors benefiting from the post-COVID recovery are quickly returning to our media with, for example, entertainment, leisure, film growing by 31% and travel by 54%. Finance was also strong at +34%. The government category grew by only 1% with the decrease of COVID-related spending, but remains above 2019 levels.
Digital Out-of-Home grew by 41.1% in full year 2022, +35.2% on an organic basis, +80% in 2022 to reach a record 31.4% of group revenue as we continue to selectively roll out digital screens in prime location, especially in Street Furniture, to further develop our data capabilities and to improve programmatic buying. Digital revenue breakdown pretty much aligns with our business mix, demonstrating the relevance of digital in many environments, including street furniture, where we have invested the most for digital in the past two years. We will, as usual, continue to digitize very selectively the most premium locations. As I have said, strong and steady development of digital Street Furniture with an increase in digital inventory.
Technical innovations have enabled us to integrate screens more efficiently, seamlessly into outdoor environments, a solution highly appreciated by advertisers as well as by city officials, who are increasingly relying on this digital technology to convey efficiently their messages for the benefit of citizens. For Digital Transport, the digital contribution, which had decreased slightly during the pandemic due to higher reactivity of digital bookings compared to analog, is now at a record level of 34%. This segment is expected to remain the most digitized of all, as it offers many premium indoor locations with a strong potential, especially in subways around the world and metros. We continue to develop our digital capabilities as demonstrated by these impressive giant transparent screens in the airport of Hong Kong. Digital Billboard now continues to grow strongly, as shown in Slide 12, reaching 29% of revenue.
Digital remains the key growth driver and winning formula for Billboards, enabling us to be more reactive, to reach more advertisers, to densify our network, and to create scarcity in the environment. Australia, as pictured here, is one of the most successful country in this regard. On Slide 13, you can see that 2/3 of digital revenue is coming from 5 countries only, namely the U.K., the U.S., Australia, Germany and China. The U.K. and U.S. are highly penetrated at 72% and 62% respectively, Germany is only at 36% and China only at 19%. The strong disparity in digital penetration, even among our top countries, shows that we will still have a lot of room to grow. The activity in terms of tenders clearly picked up this year around the world after the pause linked to COVID.
On this first slide, you can see our new contracts won from competitors this year. Two major contracts are São Paulo Metro and Shanghai Metro. Other contracts includes, for example, tram shelters in Hong Kong and Street Furniture in the Netherlands, in Eindhoven and Delft. As you can see on this Slide, we have secured several renewal contracts, mainly in Street Furniture within France, automatic public toilets, Street Furniture in Marseille, in Germany's Dresden, in Australia, North Sydney. We have shown once again our ability to win contracts based on ESG innovation criteria and services. I think that is especially true after COVID-19 pandemic, where we have built trust with our partners and shown our resilience, which is not the case with many competitors, especially at the local level.
We have won in many innovative trendsetting contexts such as Stavanger in Norway, Macao for Street Furniture or Changi Airport in Singapore or Bangalore Airport in India. In China, several significant renewals in the airports of Beijing and Chengdu and, of course, Shanghai Metro. This leads me to the next slide. We have renewed our contracts for certain lines of the Shanghai Metro and won for 5 newly constructed lines. The contract will be operated through a 60% JV. It includes a payment over 2 years for the advertising rights in line with the amount paid for the previous contracts 15 years ago per year of operation. With these contracts for the largest metro system in the world, we strengthen our footprint for metro in China, and we are the market leader as we operate in 8 cities, 90,000 panels within 48 metro lines.
With many contracts renewed recently, we have more than 11 years in remaining duration. We will digitize selectively again the most premium location, which will increase revenue. In Brazil, we are also the number 1 metro operators with 2 key wins this year from an important local competitors, the Line 4 and Line 5 in São Paulo Metro, as well as in Salvador de Bahia. This represents now more than 7.2 million passengers per day, with also a lot of digitization in this very dynamic market. Moving to now the Retail Media sector, we can see that as you know, this is a very dynamic segment within the Street Furniture, where today using data analytics for the advertisers, and being close to the point of sale and activate basically the sales dynamically.
The total market, including online, is estimated to EUR 39 billion, which is bigger than the total OOH industry with a 20% growth forecast. We are already active in 34 countries. We are still growing our footprint including with new contracts this year, such as Sonae Sierra in Portugal, or Galeries Lafayette in Paris. ESG has been at the heart of our DNA ever since the invention of our highly positive business model in 1994. Favorable infrastructure for public transport, soft mobility, useful services in cities and the development of land transport are at the forefront of JCDecaux activities. JCDecaux is a real partner of the transition since 52.4% of our turnover is eligible to the taxonomy and 49.5% of our revenues are aligned with the latter.
Meaning that 95% of our eligible revenues can consider as sustainable, a clear confirmation in light of the major issue of climate change issue, the un-usefulness of our business model. Our EU Taxonomy eligible activities in 2022 are favorable infrastructure for public transport. Bus shelter represent a lever for attracting users to the public transit system. Soft mobility, the self-service bicycle activity by nature contribute to the mitigation of climate change. JCDecaux has been a pioneer in soft mobility since 2003, activity that today is present in 10 countries and 73 cities. Development of land transport, JCDecaux consider 2 other eligible activities this year, the financing of urban and suburban transport and the financing of inter-urban rail transport, considered as the land transport.
Useful services in cities, JCDecaux has chosen to present a voluntary eligibility ratio, highlighting the role played by kiosk urban furniture for information called MUPIs or CIPs, an information system relating to air quality in educating and raising public awareness of environmental issues through the marketing of print media, dealing with this issue or the dissemination of information messages on this topic. On this Slide 20, we present our ratings by different external ESG agencies, where we are basically clearly recognized as best in class in our industry. CDP lists A- versus C on average for our category. EcoVadis, highest grade possible Platinum Medal, improving from our Gold medal in 2021. JCDecaux is thus in the top 1 of companies evaluated. MSCI, since 2013, JCDecaux has been rated by MSCI, and in 2022 remains at one of the highest score, AA.
On the next slide, placing sustainability at the heart of JCDecaux business model has helped the group achieve a very high environmental standard, including in 2022, 100% of our electricity consumption is covered by green electricity. We have thus achieved our goal for this year in accordance with our commitment to RE100. Consumption of our 2- square-m eter furniture reduced by 70% thanks to LED technology and smart lighting. Our vehicle consumption in CO₂ emissions per kilometers has been reduced by 6.3% versus 2019 and greenhouse gas emissions, Scope 3 emissions, were measured for the first year and certified by Ernst & Young. Thanks to the group actions on environmental issues, total greenhouse gas emission decreased by 27.1% in 2022 versus 2019. Scope 1, 2, and 3 being obviously, market-based.
Last, our waste recovery rate has increased at 85%. Our yearly objective has been exceeded for the 4th consecutive year. This result demonstrates that practices have been firmly established in all subsidiaries around the world. With over 11,200 partners worldwide and having relationship with a diverse ecosystem, local authorities, obviously suppliers, in particular subcontractors, JCDecaux consider its social and societal commitment another key factor to its success. Our social and societal impact was quite strong this year. Just may need to highlight our important decision to increase ESG criteria on the variable compensation of all our subsidiaries from 10% in 2021 to now 15% in 2022, showing our strong commitment to ESG, which is for us, crucial.
The frequency rate of employees occupational accidents, 14 accidents per million hours worked in 2022, is continuously down and again this year by 26% from 2019, confirming or potentially reinforcing the effectiveness of the group health and safety policy implemented since 2014. Moving to Slide 23, ESG criteria are still not considered enough from our perspective in the tenders from cities or from other partners. 61% of tenders have assessed environmental criteria encouraging versus 2019, still too slow. Only 18% of tenders have assessed social criteria. In France, the Law on Climate and Resilience will make them compulsory in public tender, only in 2026. ESG has a cost and bring value and should be included in all tenders around the world in line with the financial criteria.
Our most recent renewals in Marseille or in Tallinn are good examples of tenders, including ESG criteria. For the city of Tallinn, the final tender evaluation was 100% based on non-financial criteria such as design, including functionality and quality, where JCDecaux was the best respondent. We can see that when they are seriously considered, it is a clear competitive advantage in improving the state of the world. Very encouraging, but too slow. The emergency is now on. It is time for public procurement to act sooner, faster than later. I will now hand over to David for comments about our financial performance in 2022.
Thank you, Jean-Charles. Hello, everyone. If we go back for a moment to the summary of the financial results, as already mentioned by Jean-Charles, this picture actually reflects quite well the continuation of the rebound of our activity with a strong increase in all our operational indicators, revenue, operating margin, EBIT and operating cash flow. Except for the Free Cash Flow, which is impacted by a higher than normal level of CapEx, mainly due to the first batch of payments for the advertising rights related to the renewal and extension of our Shanghai Metro concession for 15 years. An important contract for our future growth, as explained by Jean-Charles. I will come back to it in more detail in the next slides.
Our Net Income Group Share is back to positive territory at EUR 130 million, consistent with the improvement of our operational performance. Our Net Financial Debt stands at EUR 975 million, a slight increase of EUR 50 million, mainly driven by bolt-on M&A investments. Overall, a good set of results given the historically low level of activity in China due to mobility restriction, the war in Ukraine and the inflationary pressures. Having a look now to the evolution of the Operating Margin, a strong increase of EUR 181 million to EUR 603 million, a growth of 42.8% or twice more than the revenue growth, reflecting a strong operating leverage due to an increase in our cost base contained, and so at a slower pace than the revenue growth, as you can see on this slide.
Strong revenue growth indeed, of 20.8% or EUR 572 million, with no significant scope effect over the period, but benefiting from a foreign exchange effect of approximately EUR 110 million, with a limited impact on our margin as our operating expenses are mainly denominated in local currencies, providing us with a form of natural hedge. The increase in rent and fees is limited to 18.1%, plus EUR 222 million. We have continued to benefit from rent reliefs on fixed rent pool and minimum guarantees, mainly on the transport activity in Asia and especially in airport and in China, given the situation due to ongoing mobility restrictions.
Other operating costs, including staff costs and overheads, increased by 15.5% due to the recovery of our activity. The end of governmental aid related to COVID. Compared to 2019, they nevertheless remain down by nearly 4%, reflecting rigorous cost management in the context of inflationary pressure. On the next slide, we can see the EBIT that the EBIT has improved by EUR 195.7 million, mainly driven by the improvement of the operating margin.
Regarding the charges between operating margin and EBIT, as you can see on this waterfall chart, depreciation and amortization expenses increased by EUR 9.7 million due to an increase in dismantling depreciation related to inflation and right-of-use depreciation of real estate and vehicle in line with the recovery of the activity. An increase of 2.5% year-over-year, which remain nevertheless moderate compared to the revenue growth. Maintenance spare parts increased by EUR 8.6 million +22.4% year-over-year, consistent with the recovery of the business, especially in the Street Furniture segment. Finally, a positive impact of EUR 42.2 million from the accounting reevaluation of our initial stake in our JV in Chicago, Interstate JCDecaux, following the buyout of our partner.
This resulted in a EBIT before impairment of EUR 212 million, EUR 183 million after a net impairment charge of EUR 19 million, mainly on some tangible and intangible assets in China, reflecting the historically low level of activity due to mobility restriction in 2022. Next slide. As a consequence of this good operating leverage, our margin rates improved significantly overall and across all business segments. Regarding the operating margin ratio on the left of the Slide, it is worth highlighting the rate of the Street Furniture, which increased by 140 basis points at a lower pace than the other business segments.
This is due to the end of governmental aid, which were mainly in Europe, the region which is contributing the most to this business segment, and also to some contracts in a ramp-up phase, especially in Belgium and Australia. The margin rate of the Street Furniture amounted to 23.9%, which remains lower than 2019. This is mainly explained by the level of revenue still below 2019 in some countries, in the Rest of the World and Asia-Pacific, with high margins normally, and the new contracts in the start-up phase that I have just mentioned.
Unlike Street Furniture, the margin rate of the large format at 13.5%, an increase of 40 basis points year-on-year is above 2019 level, while revenue is still lagging behind. This is mainly driven by the most digitized countries, such as Australia, UK, Mexico, countries which were able to restore the profitability of their large format business and to enhance their margins significantly and quickly thanks to the conversion of their prime large format locations into Digital. Regarding transport, a significant improvement of 440 basis points to reach 11% of the revenue, despite the situation in China, whose margin was declining due to the impact of the mobility restriction from Q2, but remaining positive thanks to rent release obtained in 2022 as indicated before.
If we look now at the EBIT margin on the right-hand side of the Slide, the overall rate goes from 0.6% in 2021 to 6.4% in 2022, an increase of 580 basis points, twice higher than the increase in the operating margin rate because it benefited from the accounting reevaluation of our initial stake in our JV in Chicago, as mentioned before. Restated from this item, the overall margin rate would be 5.1%, with an increase of 450 basis points, that would remain above the increase in the operating margin rate, as expenses positioned between operating margin and EBIT grew at a lower pace than the revenue and other operating costs.
Since the reevaluation impact is related to the large format activity, it is therefore this business segment that has the highest EBIT rate at 9.1% before Street Furniture at 7.5% and transport at 3.3%. Restated from this item, the EBIT margin of the large format segment would represent 0.5% of the revenue, demonstrating the necessity to pursue and accelerate the digitalization of this business segment wherever is possible. Looking now at the net results, it has now returned to positive territory, as mentioned in introduction, reaching EUR 132 million, a significant increase of EUR 146.4 million, which comes mainly from the improvement of our operational performance.
As you can see on the waterfall chart on the right of the Slide, the positive accounting impact from the revaluation of our JV in Chicago on our EBIT was partially offset by the impairment charges over the period, mainly on our activities in China, given the mobility restriction. It is also worth noting on this waterfall, the bar Net profit from equity affiliates shows a decrease of EUR 40.2 million, mainly due to an impairment charge on our investment in Clear Media for about EUR 28 million in connection with the low level of activity in China. The contribution of equity affiliates nevertheless remains positive at EUR 8.4 million.
The bar Financial Results, which correspond to a net charge, shows an unfavorable evolution of EUR 14.1 million, which is mainly due to the impact of currency hedges and financial interest related to the new bond issued in February 2022. Finally, the bar tax, which is a net income of EUR 22.3 million, shows a favorable variation of EUR 8.7 million compared to 2021. The income from deferred tax asset is growing faster than the current tax charge due to the reversal of provision on tax loss carried forward from countries whose perspectives have improved. Moving now to the cash flow statement.
Operating Cash Flows amounted to nearly EUR 400 million, two-third of the operating margin, a strong increase of EUR 161.8 million, driven by the improvement in the operating margin. Regarding the lines between operating margin and operating cash flow, the increase in spare parts, expenses, and tax paid by EUR 29.8 million and EUR 9.2 million respectively is mainly due to the activity recovery. On the other hand, the favorable variation on the line Other items of this table is driven by higher dividends received from equity affiliates as their results have improved in 2021.
Below the line operating cash flows, the change in working capital had a limited impact on the group's cash position, minus EUR 6.4 million, despite a significant increase in revenue, thanks to our ongoing, tight management over working capital requirements.
After CapEx for nearly EUR 350 million, we delivered a positive Free Cash Flow of EUR 43.2 million, down EUR 168 million compared to 2021, due to the increase in net CapEx for EUR 192 million and to a less favorable evolution to the change in Working Capital Requirement for EUR 137.8 million, which is mainly due to an increase in inventories in connection with our CapEx program and the payment in 2022 of rents and fees retained at the end of 2021 due to late finalization of some contract negotiation related to COVID.
If we focus now a moment on our net CapEx on the next Slide, it amounted in 2022 to 10.5% of our revenue against 8% on an average over the last 10 years. This is mainly due to the payment of EUR 85 million of advertising rights for the renewal and extension of our concession with Shanghai Metro for 15 years, as already mentioned. If we exclude this amount, our CapEx to sales ratio is aligned with our historical average of 8%, with digital representing almost 50% of this CapEx.
Finally, it is worth noting that the final batches of advertising rights for Shanghai Metro should be paid in 2023 for about EUR 60 million. Moving now to the evolution of our net financial debt. We see on this Slide an increase of the net financial debt over the period by EUR 50 million, which combined with the Free Cash Flow of EUR 43 million that I have just commented, was entirely allocated to our M&A activities for EUR 94 million and to a lesser extent to dividends for EUR 17.8 million to remunerate our minority partners in some of our subsidiaries. Our financial investment for the period are mainly related to the acquisition of our partners shares in Interstate JCDecaux in Chicago.
Pisoni in France at the end of the year, and Displayce in July. This results in a net financial debt of EUR 975 million at the end of December. To conclude this presentation, a quick update on our financial structure, which can be described as robust. We have a strong liquidity with nearly EUR 2 billion in cash and a confirmed revolving credit facility of EUR 825 million, which remains undrawn and matures in mid-2026. Furthermore, our debt portfolio is well-secured with our 2023 and 2024 bond maturities largely covered by our cash in hand and strengthened with a bond of EUR 600 million issued at the beginning of 2023 and maturing in 2029.
This new bond allows to extend the average maturity of our debt, to nearly 4 years, at an average cost of around 2%, after the repayment of the bond maturity in June 2023. Finally, our net financial debt to OM is now at 1.6, compared to 2.2, at the end of 2021. On that note, I will now pass the floor to Jean-François Decaux.
Thank you, David. On Slide 35, you can see, based on the forecast from GroupM, the largest media buying agency in the world at the end of December, that OOH media, including digital out-of-home, remains clearly a growth media for the coming five years, which includes, of course, some recovery after COVID for our media, but also long-term structural growth. On Slide 36, the benefits of out-of-home media are recognized in many countries such as Brazil, a very dynamic country which is today the eighth largest advertising market in the world. From a low level of around 3% in 2012, the market share of out-of-home media has risen to more than 10% today, including some digital panels, as you can see here in São Paulo, as it brings value to partners, citizens and advertisers.
On Slide 37, the airport recovery is more and more visible. As you can see on this chart by geographies, North America is only 10% below 2019 levels, including both domestic and international flights. Miami Airport, for example, was already at 112 of passenger traffic versus 2019. Europe is now at 77%, Middle East 8%, and Asia Pacific only 51% due to mobility restrictions. Globally, air passengers were still 28% below 2019 levels this year, but the recovery has been faster than anticipated by previous forecasts.
If we look at the current forecast, you can see that the Airports Council International is expecting to reach 92% of pre-COVID levels in 2023, which would mean a 22 points recovery as spectacular in 23 as it is in 22, and a full recovery above pre-COVID levels from 2024. Now on Slide 38, if we compare to our revenue, you can see that in some regions we are above, such for example, in the U.S. or in the Middle East, while in Europe it's slightly behind. Currently, the average spend per passenger is higher than pre-COVID in airports, which is also very encouraging. The Chinese travelers are going to come back and should have a major impact, including in Europe. Moving now to Slide 39.
As you know, China has put an end to the COVID mobility restriction measures at the beginning of December for local mobility restrictions and at the beginning of January for international mobility. This good news triggered a lot of COVID cases, impacting negatively the mobility levels in the country, as you can see on the chart on the right part of the Slide. Q4 has been the second worst quarter for mobility in China since the beginning of the COVID crisis. This situation has also impacted Q1, where we forecast a double-digit revenue decline year-on-year. The situation is improving quickly, and we see an inflection point from March as the mobility is returning to normal, at least for domestic, as international mobility remains impacted by capacity constraints. Moving on to programmatic.
Programmatic online advertising now represents 85% of the global online display advertising and is now close to $200 billion of revenue, growing by approximately 15% yearly. This is a huge opportunity for out-of-home media that we can address as programmatic trading has many benefits for advertisers. On the next Slide, 41, you can see that this opportunity is already turning to a reality as programmatic revenue booked through the VIOOH platform have doubled this year to reach EUR 61 million, which is 5.9% of our digital revenue. We currently have more than 16,000 screens trading in programmatic through in 19 countries. What's important to notice is that the revenue is mainly incremental, coming from what we call new money.
With programmatic, we can target the long tail of advertisers, campaigns and advertisers that would not have used out-of-home media without programmatic trading. You have a few examples of campaigns and advertisers on this Slide. This broaden client universe increase demand and generate higher prices for our digital inventory. Moving on to Slide 42, you can see that some countries already had in 2022 a double-digit share of programmatic out of their total digital revenues, more than 20% in the Dutch market and in Germany, for example. Compared to 5.8% for the group average. This illustrates our room for growth in programmatic as we think it will reach by 2025, 20%-30% of digital revenue, with still more than 50% of incremental revenue.
Moving on to the main tenders now, which is a key growth, key growth driver for us. The activity in tenders, remain quite strong with higher visibility after COVID-19. Oslo Transport, Singapore Street Furniture, Riyadh Airport and Hong Kong Metro, just to name a few, are among the important tenders coming up soon or already ongoing. Most of them now include an important share of digital. Moving on to Slide 44, in order to reduce its carbon footprint, JCDecaux defined last year a group wide climate strategy following a pilot realized in 2021 for our business in France. JCDecaux's goal is to align itself with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement and to achieve net zero carbon by 2050 by committing to a science-based target called SBTI trajectory.
It is worth mentioning that our efforts in place for several years to reduce our environmental impact enable us to show in 2022 a 27.1% reduction versus 2019 in our carbon footprint. Looking at Slide 45, and the competitive landscape, we are the clear leader in out-of-home worldwide and especially outside the U.S. Our unique international global position will, in our view, become more and more differentiating in the age of digital and of programmatic. The current environment with macro headwinds in certain regions, higher interest rates, could bring some opportunities for consolidation, but more importantly for market rationalizations as competitors and partners are progressively getting more rational as liquidity tightens. We will continue to monitor the competitive situation, especially for small bolt-on opportunities, as we did for Pisoni in France and Chicago last year.
As a conclusion, I would like to highlight the following: a good set of results reflecting the rebounds. All geographies and business segments growing double-digit, except China, impacted by historic low mobility levels. Strong improvement in all operational indicators. A positive free cash flow, including exceptional payments for advertising rights to renew and expand our 15-year franchise with Shanghai Metro, and best in class in ESG performance. We're well positioned to benefit from the recovery with a unique worldwide leadership position, a well-diversified geographical and advertising exposure. We are the most digitized and data-driven global out-of-home media company. We have an ongoing focus on innovation and an enhanced ESG roadmap, including our climate strategy.
There are more opportunities for sustainable and profitable growth, digitization of prime locations, programmatic trading state-of-the-art platform which continues upgrades, data-driven trading reinforced with JCDecaux Data Solutions, future organic growth through tenders, consolidation opportunities. For all these reasons, our proposal to the next shareholders meeting in May is not to pay any dividends in 2023 for 2022 to strengthen our capacity to seize opportunities for future growth in this recovery phase. Finally, before we move into the Q&A, our outlook for the first quarter of this year. As far as this quarter is concerned, we now expect an organic revenue growth rate at around +2.5%, including a double-digit revenue decline in China, where we start seeing an inflection point from March as mobility is returning to normal.
Thank you very much, and we are now ready to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question by phone, please press 0 and 1 on your telephone keypad. We have a question from Julien Roch from Barclays. Please go ahead.
h, I believe you said that the reason you were not paying a dividend is because there was some region where there was some distressed assets. I doubt you're going to tell us what you have in mind in terms of M&A, but if you could give us some color on which region you feel there is potential M&A, that is my first question. The second one for David, which we will get the answer in the actual annual report, but we are going to have to wait a month or so. Could you tell us how much factoring you did in 2022 to help working capital?
'Cause you said this morning it was bigger than 2021. You didn't give a number. Thank you.
Thank you, Julien, for your questions. I will take the first one, and David will take the second one. On the first one, M&A bolt-on acquisition, as you know, it's part of our...
Strategy for quite some time now. You've seen that in basically in the past. You've seen that through the basically the pandemic also with some small but regional or local acquisitions, even though we distress basically, I'm not so sure we use the distress situation, but we just said we will have to size some opportunities around the world. I think we could see things in most regions with some exceptions. I'm. For example, I will start with the exception.
I don't think we will see anything in Africa or in the Middle East as we speak, but it is clear that you have some, you could see some further, I would say, consolidation in Europe, but you will see also you could see some also in other regions. We can't give you obviously, targets or, or group list, but you can see that this is certainly a moment.
If you take the combination of the outcome of the current situation, where some companies have been financially impacted on their balance sheet on one side and on the other side, the shift into digital, but not only into the hardware of digital, but also the new software, the programmatic buying movement. This is certainly creating some further opportunities because the clock is ticking for some of those medium, small size companies to really actually change gears or being quite affected by this new environment, this new programmatic, let's say, or digital ecosystem.
That's why we still believe that JCDecaux can continue to grow, and this is a clear moment where we could see and sign some quite good acquisitions in that moment if things happen. Nothing major in terms of size. Yes, good bottom acquisition as we did at some point in Asia, as we did in Latin America, as we did also in some European countries in the past during tough time or after tough times.
Julien, regarding the factoring in 2022, we did a bit more than EUR 200 million, and we did last year a bit more than EUR 160 million. A difference between the 2022 and 2021 of about EUR 40 million.
Merci.
We have another question from Catherine O'Neill from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. I just wondered if you could give us a bit more detail on the geographical trends you're seeing in the first quarter, and what kind of pickup you've started to observe in China, 'cause when I look at your guidance, I was just wondering if some of the geographies have started to soften in other regions. The other question I had is on CapEx, if you could give us for 2023, including EUR 60 million for Shanghai and also working capital. Finally, on the new contract wins, I just wondered how much you'd expect them to contribute to growth for 2023.
Thank you, Catherine. Jean-François, we'll take the first one, and David will take the second one.
In as far as Q1 is concerned, just give you a bit of color. UK is soft. Soft meaning flattish. Germany is slightly behind last year as a result of the tobacco ban. These are obviously important markets for us. Having said that, we have other markets, for example, in the southern part of Europe, which are at double digit, Brazil at double digit in Latin America. It's a mixed bag of high and double digit in some, in some countries. In some big markets like Germany and UK. Soft. US is strong in airport, a bit soft in Street Furniture, for example, just to give you a bit of a flavor.
The rest of Asia is pretty good. France is also well-oriented as well in Q1.
Catherine, regarding CapEx for 2023, as you know, we do not provide any guidance. This year in 2022, as I mentioned, including Shanghai Metro, we were at 10.5% of our revenue. Excluding Shanghai Metro, we were at 8%. For 2023, we are working in the same range of CapEx, including Shanghai Metro and despite the increase in number of contract wins, as you have seen during the presentation.
Okay. Thanks. Sorry, on the CapEx point, can I just clarify? When you say you're working in the same range, you mean including the EUR 60 million of Shanghai, you'd expect to be somewhere around the 8% mark?
Yes. We are working on this range, including.
Including-
Shanghai Metro.
Okay. just going back to the first question, on China-
Regarding the-
Yeah. Would you mind just giving us a bit more detail on the trend in China and what kind of inflection you're seeing in March and that pace of recovery?
Yeah. I think the picture is quite getting clearer, Catherine, at the moment. As you know, in China, since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been a quite patchy situation where 2020 difficult, then at mid-year of 2020, a bit better, reopening of the economy and then, obviously, the issue of the high mobility restriction that has been implemented over end of 2020 and almost all 2021 and part of 2022. That has put the situation in China very difficult. I would like to say 2 things. First, despite this very, very harsh environment on the revenue side, because you can imagine that a metro like Shanghai Metro was closed for almost 3 months in a row.
We have been able, obviously, to manage our financial resources, where we have been able to stay in positive numbers at the bottom line. We, basically, didn't increase our, we didn't consume cash in that situation. We managed to mitigate basically the dramatic slowdown in revenue, not to say more, by optimizing, obviously, not only our financial situation, but also keeping our talent and keeping our people. We haven't managed the situation by slashing, obviously, accounts or slashing talents within our firm, which give us now a position where from mid-March, I would say, so as we speak, literally as we speak, the situation in China is now getting into a much better mode, which is a bit lagging the overall reopening of the economy.
Obviously, that was what we always kept on saying, that we are always lagging a bit when the economy is reopening. In China now, what we see is from the second part of March, what we could call a kind of hocke y stick, where we see a rebound on our different, basically, sectors. First, airport, obviously. Domestic airport is now quite dynamic. International travel is a bit lagging the domestic as we could all understand, this is also coming back quite rapidly.
On Metro, now I'm pleased to report to you and to the all the, basically, all the guests today on the call, is that we are now in term of audience, now back for the first time at the level of pre-COVID situation. We will have, we think, a quite good Q2 in China. As we speak, we see it. We see it also obviously, in the different cities where we are.
The really the inflection point, that's why we said, as we are used to say very clearly in our call this morning, in our guidance, that even though the 2.5 is obviously very much impacted by the slow China in January and February as expected, now the turning point is clearly in March across the board and across the different segments, including airports, as well as buses, as well as metro advertising. We feel confident that the shape of our Chinese business from Q2 onwards will be back on track. It is a bit early to say when we will be reaching again 2019, but I remind you that in 2021, in first quarter 2021, we were back at 2019 already.
The economy basically suffered again and closed again. but that was the fastest recovery in our big markets around the world when the markets was reopening at that time. We feel confident, not overconfident, because this is not our style, but we clearly see today that the situation is getting good traction from mid-March onwards.
Okay, thanks. Just on the new contracts, what kind of contribution you'd expect them to have for growth this year?
As you know, we don't really disclose new contracts, I'm pleased to report to you that we have won more new contracts than we lost position last year. The net will be again positive, obviously. Even if we have won some contracts, we have lost some contracts. The net is positive to the all, but not absolutely meaningful at the group level because as you know, you need to start adding the ramping up of the revenues. Nothing dramatic for 2023. The most obviously important will be also digitization across some renewals. The difference now between
Today's world, I would say the last few years, is that we are starting to digitize big metros in China. That will start to contribute by 2023 and onwards. As you have seen on our Slide on the leading metro Slide on China, that Slide was made to show you that not only we have renewed, but we have also extended, and we are now in the process to digitalize where China is at roughly 20% digitization rate. That will start to ramp up obviously within 2023 and certainly even at a bigger scale in 2024.
Thank you.
We have another question from Benjamin Yokyong-Zoega from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Two questions, please. The first one, how is the sentiment of advertisers in large markets like Germany, U.K. and France looking like for the rest of 2023? Do you have any visibility that sentiment is improved? By sectors, in 2023, which sectors do you think would continue spending robustly? Are there any sectors that you think may be cutting back? Secondly, with financial leverage reduced to 1.6x and no dividend proposed, could you please update us on how you're thinking about target leverage going forward? Thanks very much.
On your first question, the advertising sentiment is not bad. Obviously, as we started in the year in 2023, and given all the news in the background about recession, recession, we were quite surprised to see the good level of bookings across the world, except in China, in January and February, I'm not going to repeat myself. The sentiment remains okay. U.K. was a bit softer recently, nothing major, except that of course, we're going to be flattish. France is, despite not being exposed to a lot of digital for local regulations, where, for example, in Paris, it's still not legally possible to digitize on the public right of way.
France is up mid-single digit, so above the guidance, and this is our biggest market in the world. Germany, a bit behind last year, but we had a cracking year last year and we lost tobacco, which was about 7, 8% of our total revenues. That's the main reason. In Germany, where the sentiment was not so strong because it's a very much export-driven country, we were surprised to see that the level of bookings was still pretty good. It's fair to say that in many markets, we believe that we are getting share, getting share of media spent.
This is certainly true in Brazil, which is why we have it in the presentation, but this is also true in Germany and in Norway, where I was recently. Overall, the sentiment, I would say is better than what we could expect that we could have expected at the beginning of the year. Remains obviously very short term. In terms of sectors, luxury, given the growth of luxury and the profitable growth of luxury, which is our biggest segment, which was up 40% last year, continues to be very strong. Including luxuries personal care as well. Entertainment now that blockbusters are coming back after 3 years of COVID and a smaller number of blockbusters.
We see also some very good demand from the large studios. Retail remains a very strong category. As we said in our presentation, we are very diversified in terms of revenues. Our top 10 clients represent less than 15% of our revenue. Good, I would say the sentiment is not buoyant, but it's not bad, and it's certainly much better than what we could have expected.
Regarding our financial leverage, our financial net debt to aim is at 1.6, coming from 2.2, improving over the last few months. We are not reasoning in terms of leverage targets. We are more looking at our grading. We are attached to our investment grade at any cost, but this is what we are looking. We know based on that, what where we could go in term of leverage if we had a transformative acquisition to about 3.5x, knowing that we should normally deleverage after such acquisition in the next 18-24 months. At that time, it's not really the question.
I think we have currently a strong balance sheet enough for us to ensure our development in terms of organic growth, digitalization, and bolt-on acquisition. So far as you have seen over the last two years, despite we were in an unprecedented crisis, we continue to grab some opportunities and we made some bolt-on acquisition of about EUR 100 million per year. This is not going to affect our net debt financial leverage.
Coming back to your in the first question, I forgot to mention that programmatic revenue in Q1 is going to be almost double as what it was last year. What we mentioned about the programmatic revenue increasing as a share of total digital revenue is at least in Q1, the trend is very positive and we are expecting to double the revenue coming from programmatic from EUR 60-ish last year to above EUR 100 million this year.
Perfect. Thanks very much.
We have no further question. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question by phone, please dial 0 and 1 on your telephone keypad. We have another question from Julien Roch from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yes. Sorry to take more of your time. For David Bourg again, apologize for my complete lack of knowledge on accounting. I always hated accounting. On factoring, you've done EUR 160 in 2021, EUR 200 in 2022. It's basically someone owes you money, a client that's supposed to pay you in three months. You find someone to give you the money now, for that, they charge you, say, 5%. That's factoring. Does that mean you're pregnant a negative working capital? What happens when if you stop doing factoring, when the client pays no longer you, but the person who financed you with factoring, do you get negative working capital or a lower cash flow or not?
What's the impact of factoring going forward on working capital?
It is part of, Julien, our toolbox. At the end of the day, there is no reason for us to stop. It is a tool which is used by many companies and we will continue to do so. Yes, if you stop at some point, you will have a negative impact, but there is no intention to stop.
Okay.
This is something that we have been using for a certain period of time, and we will continue to use it in order to optimize our working capital during this remontada recovery phase. It's a kind of good management of our balance sheet during this period of time.
That means that you have, in effect, an extra EUR 200 million of debt, which is kind of off balance sheet.
It is off balance sheet. It is treated as a debt by the rating agencies. As you know, it is fully disclosed in our financial statements. It is not considered as a debt because it is not in the balance sheet.
Okay.
It is not part of the free cash flow, as you know, not part of the working capital also.
Okay. Clear. Thank you.
We have no more questions, gentlemen.
If there is no more questions, thank you for being at this, under reserve conference call, and we wish you a good afternoon to everyone. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.