Welcome to the 2022 annual results presentation for Sopra Steria Group, which will be led by Cyril Malargé, CEO, and Etienne du Vignaux, Group CFO. There will be a Q&A session after the presentation. You can ask your questions in writing at any point during the conference using the Q&A tab on the webcast platform. This presentation is simultaneously interpreted into English. It is recorded. I will now hand the floor to Cyril Malargé. Over to you. The floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this 2022 annual results presentation call. I will be leading this presentation with Etienne du Vignaux, the Group CFO. I will start by talking about the highlights of 2022. I'll look at the operating position in each of our five reporting units.
Etienne will present the details of the financial results. I will provide a reminder of the main areas of our strategy. We'll finish with our financial targets for 2023. We'll have a Q&A session. Sopra Steria generated a good performance in 2022. We comfortably achieved our targets with organic growth in revenue of per 7.6%. We exceeded our objective of 7%, which was revised upwards in last October. This was thanks to a quarter four, which was sustained above 8%, so one of the strongest quarters of the year. Our profitability also improved. We reached the top of the range of our guidance with operating margin on business activity of 8.9%, representing an increase of 0.8 points when compared with 2021.
I'd like to highlight that six entities representing 74% of the group's turnover hit an operating margin of either 10% or above. This new factor clearly confirms us and puts us on track to generate operating margin on business activity of above 10% in 2024. Free cash flow was very solid, EUR 287.2 million, 5.6% of revenue. Finally, net profit margin also improved significantly, 0.9 points and was 4.9%. If we take a step back, we can see that the group's performance structurally improved over the last couple of years with nearly 9% operating margin on business activity, at its highest level since 2012.
Transformation into cash improved. The free cash flow is now well established within our midterm guidance, so between 5% and 7% of revenues. The ROZ also improved over the last three years, the Return on Capital Employed, and is now above 14%. This represents an increase of nearly 5% since 2020. We saw an improvement in profitability, but also better management of capital. The year was obviously very busy from a business point of view. We signed some good transformation programs. Out of these wins, I want to focus on three. First of all, we've got the renewal of the significant contract that we have in the U.K. , creating recurring revenue.
I'm referring to the U.K. Visas and Immigration contract for the visa renewal service, which was extended up until 2024. Then with NHS, up until 2031, we'll be providing back office service for a number of hospitals that are expanding. We've also expanded our contract with the Financial Conduct Authority contract. We're also chosen by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to operate a solution which records and certifies vehicles in Norway, so EUR 200 million over eight years. These solutions obviously reinforce our continuum, specializing in road safety in Europe. We've been operating the driver's license system in France for several years now, and this has been extended to maintenance and vehicle registration.
Sopra Steria Next, so our consultancy brand, is supporting CMA CGM with a consultancy environment, helping them with their decarbonization strategy, so steering their energy consumption. 2022, we saw an acceleration in our strategy in different areas, and I'll go over all of them. First of all, development in consulting, reinforcing our market share in Europe, then our position in digital sovereignty and trust, transformation of our offerings, our operational efficiency, and then also our corporate responsibility. Let's start with consultancy. For us, this is a major strategic area for the group's positioning as a partner in major transformations for our customers. It represents EUR 435 million.
The business was very buoyant in 2022, got external recognition from the various rankings that you can see on the screen. 18% growth. We reinforced our teams with approximately 400 additional consultants. This change also comes with a value ramp up with regards to our positioning. Average daily rate was up 5% approximately. We're starting 2023 with positive trends. We're drawing on a new organization and new leadership. We decided to gather together all of the consultants in France in one separate business unit, focusing on consultancy to be able to drive more momentum and provide more added value to our customers. I'm delighted to announce that we've got a new executive director for consulting, joined us at the end of 2022 to drive the ambitious project that we have for our consulting business.
In 2022, we also worked on our market share in European countries that we consider to be strategic for our future development. Last year, we announced the proposed acquisitions of Tobania and CS Group. Tobania in Belgium, which will enable us to double the group's presence and will be one of the top 10 players with over EUR 200 million in turnover. And we consider this country to be strategic for the group, strategic in Europe, given its size, but also given the presence of the European institutions. The acquisition of CS Group obviously reinforced our presence on the French market with 6% market share. We're clearly the number two player in digital services.
Beyond the size, this change reinforced our positioning in terms of sovereignty, digital trust from major European customers, and I'd like to suggest that we spend just a couple of minutes on the matter. Obviously, in addition to geopolitical and energy crisis, we've got our strategy, and we've identified sovereignty and digital trust as key challenges in Europe. Challenges where we could position the group as a very credible player. The acquisition of EVA Group, BSS, at the end of 2021 and then CS Group, the announcement in July 2022, these two announcements are obviously aligned with the strategic vision. In 2023, the group will reinforce its presence in defense, security, space with approximately EUR 700 million turnover, which will make Sopra Steria a major player in this domain.
We'll also reinforce our business in energy and utilities with approximately EUR 350 million in revenue. In particular, we've got new skills in the nuclear domain, and this is quite promising. For cybersecurity, with over EUR 200 million in revenue, we will be positioned as a leading player. Another area, important area in our strategy is our value ramp up, so transforming our offers, and we should highlight this when we talk about 2023. Within the group, we'll be rolling out our new industrial offer, which is called Engine. This integrates digital transformation services. It natively integrates our methods, as-assets, industrial methods, extra services and the reference frameworks.
This is a state-of-the-art tool, and it's going to be a source of extra added value for the group. The second point that I'd like to highlight is that we are working on our operational model, which needs to leave more space for horizontal centers of excellence, so that we can accelerate development of technological and critical skills for the company. The digital center of expertise set up four years ago is gonna benefit. It's gonna leverage other centers with cloud, AI, data, et cetera. For us, it's a question of being attractive, and it's a way of retaining our resources. Finally, in the U.K., we've accelerated business platform development, so drawing on traditional skills, combining AI and BPO.
We're building business offerings, business offerings that are enhanced by technology, AI and cloud. Today, we have five platforms that are currently being rolled out. In 2022, they generated total revenues of above EUR 560 million. Let's come back to our operational efficiency. It's been improved in 2022, thanks to various decisions that we took. Combined with the added value in our offers and this ramp-up in prices as well, for our service activity throughout the year. We've also reinforced our resources in offshore areas, and the number of employees in India went up by over 14% in India, whereas the total headcount increased by 4.7%. Resources in our offshore centers represent 19% of total workforce.
We've also launched a program to reduce our real estate footprint, and we're targeting savings of around 30 basis points with regards to our total revenues. For SFT, we've also decided to initiate a risk reduction process. In the midterm with the Sparda-Banken, we've shared the observation that there's a difficulty aligning all banks onto the same platform. We've also observed a change in strategy for some of these banks, and together we are considering stopping the transformation program. We'll carry on with the run up until 2026, and this won't have a significant impact on 2023. Beyond 2023, we consider that it won't hinder the group's capacity to generate above 5%. In 2022, we also reinforced our corporate responsibility policy, which is obviously at the heart of our strategy.
At Sopra Steria, we contribute to society in a sustainable human focus and purposeful way. We've committed to reducing greenhouse gases, boosting female representation, we're also committed to digital sovereignty. At the en d of 2022, greenhouse gas emissions was 68% when compared with 2015. This places us in a good position on track to reduce emissions by 85% from our direct business activities by 2040. The group is obviously very proud of this. We're proud to see that the work that we've done in this area has been recognized by the Financial Times and Le Point magazine.
With regards to female representation now, we improved the percentage of women, out of total headcount, this was increased by 0.7%, and women in the X. Comm was up 20%. In terms of digital sovereignty and trust, we are a founding member of the new Cyber Campus, and we've been very active in terms of digital ethics. We had the publication of the first journal from Nicomaque . This is focusing on digital ethics. Finally, our Great Place to Work score improved once again, an overall satisfaction rate, which was up 6% to reach 78% in total. Let's look at the operating situation in each division. We'll start with France. Good year for France.
Operating profit on business activity went up by 1.4% to hit 10%. Organic growth was 9.7% over the year. The fourth quarter, which was buoyant at over 9.5% of the most dynamic or buoyant verticals, were aeronautics, defense, and transport. The most buoyant offers were PLM, cybersecurity, and consulting. I just want to highlight good growth in consulting in the fourth quarter, so 22% in France. Now let's come to the United Kingdom. Good year for the U.K. .The operating profit on business activity was up 1.4% to hit 10.5%. Organic growth was significant at above 7.3% after 2021, where you'll remember, where we had a already high growth rate of 13.9%.
Growth was driven by all of our business, joint ventures, defense and security, the public sector. I also want to highlight return to growth in the private sector. This was announced and has been confirmed in 2022. For other Europe, operating profit on business activity was 6.2%, compared with 7.8% in 2021. A couple of comments. Situation in Germany is returned to normal in the second half. Excluding SFT, operating margin was close to 8%, and in the second half, it was close to 10%. Beyond the discussions that we've had with regards to SFT, it had a more dilutive effect in 2022 when compared with 2021.
Growth was solid at 8.3%, driven by Scandinavia, but also Spain, Benelux, and Italy. If we look at Sopra Banking Software, the operating profit on business activity was up by 200 basis points, EUR 27.6 million, 6.5% of turnover. This is the result of a transformation plan launched in 2021. We saw a EUR 10 million savings in costs. Revenue contracted by 2.3%. This was due to a downturn in service revenue, but software was up by 1% and in particular 6% for subscriptions. Our investment in our digital offers are starting to pay off with growth of 13% in the Digital Banking Suite offering. Other solutions also improved.
Last year, operating profit on business activity was up 2.9% and hit 13%. Growth was also up to standard with organic growth of above 5.6%, 7.2% for human resources solutions and 2.2% for property management solutions. I will hand the floor to Etienne, who will present the financial results.
Thank you, Cyril. Good morning. To start with, we're going to have a look at the consolidated income statement that you can see right now. Cyril's given you the first aggregates. Revenues reached EUR 5.101 billion, therefore up 7.6% from the organic point of view, and the operating profit on business activity reaching EUR 453 million, therefore 8.9% margin rate, therefore up 80 basis points versus 2021. Between this operating profit on business activity and the profit from recurring operations, there are also amortization, there's the share-based payment expenses, and that's EUR -23 million. This includes the We Share employee plan that was launched again during the second half of 2022. We'll have We Share 2023.
These expenses will represent 0.6% of total revenues in financial year 2023. We have amortization of allocated intangible assets going down slightly, therefore profit from recurring operations reached EUR 397.6 million, therefore 7.8% of our revenue, up 17.2% from 2021. Other operating income and expenses are stable, therefore operating profit reached EUR 361 million, therefore 7.1% on revenue, therefore up 19.1%. Between this line and the net profit, we have stable financial expenses and EUR 4 million in the decrease of other financial income and expenses and interest expenses on the pension obligations that are down a little.
Before we reach net profit, I'd like to talk about the share of net profit from equity accounted companies. It's negative this year. That is EUR -14.7 million. The explanation is Axway that reported yesterday, it represents 1/3 in the accounts of Sopra Steria. Their net accounting profit is negative after taking into account asset depreciation that were announced in October last year. This impact on our books has no impact on our cash. Finally, if we set aside the minority interest, the net profit attributable to group is at EUR 247.8 million, therefore 4.9% of our revenue. We look at other operating income and expenses.
We have costs related to business combinations as due to the existing M&A operations, and we've seen a decrease in restructuring costs, partly offset by one-off costs. All in all, the expenses are stable at EUR 36 million. Therefore, they're going down in proportion to the revenues. In 2021, we were at 0.8 and 0.9 two years ago in 2020. We will be talking about tax now. As you can see, the effective tax rate is at 24% for the year. In 2021, the tax expense was included in one-off effect during the first half of 2021 due to the reevaluation of deferred tax in the U.K., given the announcements made by the British government. The rate on companies would go from up to 19% in 2024, up to 24% in 2024.
The normative rate would be 26%. It would go up to 24% in 2024. That's the normative rate. That includes the fact that in France, the CVAE, the tax would disappear. Now we'll zoom in on our cash position, free cash flow. Cyril's given you the amount. Free cash flow is at EUR 287 million for the financial year. We're very happy about this. It's slightly above the guidance, which was at EUR 250 million. We've seen that EBITDA has increased as announced at the beginning of 2022. CapEx is up as well. Conversely, we can see that we've seen a reduction in cash outs due to non-recurring costs and reduction of the additional contribution to the pension plans in the U.K. Working capital requirement change is less favorable than in 2021.
We've seen that there's more pressure at the end of the year in terms of payments to our clients. WCR is less high or less important on the cash flow than in 2021. Net debt is almost halved, a bit more than halved at EUR 152 million, down 54% versus 2021 due to the fact that we've generated quite a lot of cash. We can see that the cash outs relative to the changes in scope are quite minimal. The main transactions that we announced in 2022, that is CS Group and Tobania, didn't have any impact on the cash during this financial year. The balance sheet of the group is strengthened for yet another year, I would say.
As you can see here, we have the usual ratios, the gearing ratio, the net debt to equity, which is at 8% at the end of the year versus 19% at the end of 2021. The net financial debt to EBITDA before IFRS 16, which is used to calculate the covenants, is at 0.3 x versus a ratio of 0.73 at the end of 2021. There's a sharp drop in the pensions and post-employment benefits in the U.K., but not just in the U.K., down EUR 140 million. This is to be compared with the fact that the long-term interest rates are going up, but also there's the active management of our pension funds in the U.K. Now we'll have a look at financing our financing capacity.
As you can see, we have quite a lot of leeway. If we look at amounts available, EUR 1.3 billion of available undrawn amounts at the end of December 2022. Cash reached EUR 336 million, more or less, at the end of the financial year. No major maturities in terms of our debt. For instance, we've renegotiated at the beginning of 2022 the conditions for our RCF revolving credit facility. The maturity now is 2028. Finally, before we hand over to Cyril again, a few words about the existing M&As. With these two operations, the CS Group to start with in France and then Tobania in Belgium.
Given the administrative authorizations that we've already received for CS Group, what we expect is a closing to by the company by blocks to have 75% of controlling interest in the company. There's going to be a public offer at the end of March, and therefore it'll be consolidated in the financial statements as of March. For Tobania, the closing will be early March for 100% of the capital equity, and consolidation in our books will be starting in March 2023. Thank you very much for your attention. I will hand over to Cyril, who's going to tell you more about our strategy and the objectives of the group.
Thank you, Etienne. Now let's look at our strategy and our targets for 2023. I'd like to start with providing a reminder of the key pillars of our corporate plan and the levers which we will activate to support our corporate plan. As you know, it's an independent corporate plan supported by a reference shareholder, which draws on employee shareholding to involve all our employees in the company's development. This means that we strive to constantly improve our performance. It's an expansion project where we see growth, so organic growth and external growth. It's a corporate plan that gives priority to value over volume, so added value, drawing on an end-to-end approach, powerful consulting and then technological and digital expertise and specialization by vertical.
We also draw on our differentiating factors, so the trusting relationship that we have with our customers. We've got a strong software footprint and an incredible and acclaimed position in digital sovereignty and digital trust with regards to our European customers. Our strategy is based on three key defined levers. Our focus strategy, focusing on our customers, our offers, and then our digital and industrial production model. Firstly, we're obviously focused on our customers. We've got 100 European key accounts, which represent 2/3 of the group's revenue, and they are across eight strategic verticals where we want to be a go-to player for specific business domains. For our offering strategy, we aim to accelerate our value ramp-up strategy for our services. This is seen by a reinforcement in our consulting position and capacities.
We're also reinforcing our technological skills, so our digital skills, with more training, more certification for our employees. We've got an operational model which should enable us to develop the most critical expertise. Our offer strategy also draws on our software with our three product lines. Our digital industrial production model is indeed, our model is digital and industrial, so it has an industrial approach, reusing assets, in particular acquired assets, and it's based on the complementarity of our different centers, so offshore centers, which represent 19% of the group's total headcount. If we look at our priorities or our targets for 2023 and 2024, the macroeconomic environment is still uncertain, but the market is buoyant at the start of the year.
We've set ourselves the following financial targets: organic revenue growth of between 3%-5%, operating margin on business activities slightly above 9%, and free cash flow of at least EUR 300 million. For 2024, Sopra Steria is confirming its target of reaching an operating margin on business activity of around 10%. This presentation of the 2022 results has now come to an end. Thank you for listening. I'd like to suggest that we move on to the Q&A session.
We will now start the Q&A. The financial analysts will be able to ask their questions. They will have to dial star one. For anybody else, you can send your questions in writing. You'll have to use the Q&A tab on the webcast platform. We have a first question from Nicolas David, from ODDO Securities. The floor is yours.
Good morning, Philippe. Good morning, Etienne. Congratulations for the very good results for 2022. I have three questions to ask. Number 1, the growth guidance in 2023. I'd like to understand how it's structured. Is it a normal year that is some backlog and the business according to you would continue and grow on the basis of what happened in 2022? Have you included a significant drop in demand during the year given the macro environment? That was my first question.
Second question, your margins in 2023. Why are you not a bit more offensive in your guidance? If you look at what's happening in Germany, the basis effect is better for Sopra Banking Software. More information about your margin. What about your margin guidance in 2024? Why do you think your margin could increase in 2024 after a limited increase in 2023? SFT, could you tell us more about the discussions you're having in terms of operational extra costs or exceptional expenses? What about your interests in the joint venture and the impact on SBS?
Thank you, Nicolas. First question, our growth guidance for 2023. We'll tell you what we did. The lower part of the bracket in our guidance is a dynamic first half, and H2 would be really tough.
That is with a sharp decrease in our growth. The upper part of the bracket in our guidance is based on growth that would continue. That wouldn't re-accelerate, but that would be maintained. That's the central, quote-unquote, central scenario, the upper part of the bracket. As we start the year, the year seems to be good. I consider that today when we look at the first quarter, our growth is above the upper part of the bracket that we have in the annual guidance. Your second question, the 2023 margin. Why are we not more offensive? Well, we have uncertainties on markets, very little visibility like the other players. Our guidance, we think, is something that we have trust in, and we'll see how the markets change. Your third question, SFT.
Well, what we have done with the banks is that we've agreed on the fact that the conditions are not necessarily all met to succeed in the long term. Also, we think that there are some risks. It was not the case so far, but we're having these discussions with the bankers. We'll tell you more when we have more information on that. I can tell you that we have to continue work together until 2026. If we were to stop the digital transformation project, we would still use the run from the banks for something like three years. Our relations are really good with them. Then Etienne will tell you more about the impacts. Oh, yes, impacts on SFT. That's Etienne. The figures were reported. The impact will be dilutive. That's going to be a dilutive effect as announced.
It's going to be the case in 2023 in the same order of things. No major impact on the profit from business activity. As you said, Cyril, we remain a shareholder in this JV with the banks that are also our clients for the three coming years. Therefore, we'll perhaps have to reshuffle this eventually, reshuffle the business should the run which comes from SFT, should it migrate to a third party, but that will be in two or three years.
Thank you. Crystal clear. Now, what about your margin in 2024 to reach 10%? What are the elements that you've factored in, the main highlights that we wouldn't see in the short term?
The CEO. Well, first, there's something I mentioned during my presentation.
We have six units that cover 75% of our revenues that have reached 10% already. These units that have reached 10% already have not reached the maximum. There's still room for maneuver. The ones that have not yet reached 10% can improve their business. That's one answer. We have a performance approach, a performance-based approach in the company based on two levers. First, we keep an eye on the production cost. We're going to continue and grow in India. We're going to improve our productivity as well with the deployment of industrial frameworks, and also we'll reduce our property footprint, and we'll keep an eye on the average wages and the age pyramid. That's to control costs. There's another lever that we're going to use, which is the ramp-up in the level of services.
Therefore, we'll have consulting for the top CEOs, and we focus on the major transformation programs. We'll also increase our selling prices. I think we can still increase them. Before 2024, we will deliver synergies with CS and Tobania. These are the clear levers that we can use.
Crystal clear. Thanks.
Thank you.
Next question from Laura Metayer, Morgan Stanley. The floor is yours.
Thank you. I have two questions to ask. Can you tell us more about the market, how the market's going to evolve? Do you think the demand is going to slow down in some regions, in some segments? Do you have the impression that customers are more sensitive to prices? Question number two. Could you tell us more about the market share changes for Sopra Steria in 2022? Where did you win some market shares?
In which countries? Do you know who are the players who lost some market shares that Sopra nibbled or took from them?
Yes. Well, the market is still buoyant or dynamic. There's no change between the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023. If we look at the main business sectors, what I see is that the most thriving markets, the markets where we have a good position are the aeronautics market to start with clients like Airbus, and they have a lot in the backlog. Then there's defense, there's transport or transportation. These are the most buoyant markets according to me. Then there are some that are fairing well, like banks. There's the digital plans that's very important for the, for the banks still.
There's the public sector, there's energy utilities, and the telcos. Other sectors that are less dynamic, I'd say there's two I'd like to mention. There's retail, and insurance. The market is driven by three engines. That was the case in 2022. It still is going to be the case in 2023. The cloud transformation is one of the engines. That's the first engine. A very important engine it is. There's digitizing business and processes. That's AI and data. There's huge potential for us in the future, and these are just the early stages, I'd say. There's security, cyber security, anything that has something to do with it. These are the three offerings that are quite dynamic and buoyant this year. If we look at our geographies, I'd say that all geographies are moving in the same direction.
I wouldn't say that one is different from the others. A few words about the competition. I've not seen anything special. The usual suspects like Accenture and others are still there, and they're delivering. Also we are with them on some markets and positions. I've not seen anything special so far.
Thank you very much.
Next question from Emmanuel Parot from Gilbert Dupont. The floor is yours.
Hello, gents. I have three questions to ask. Number one, about Sopra Banking. Could you tell us more about your pipeline, please? What would you say about financial year 2023? Will growth will be flat or flattish with a slight improvement or in your profitability? That's for Sopra Banking. Question number two, perhaps. The price and wage impacts in 2023, what would you say about your pricing policy and wage policy?
Do you still trust that you can pass on the wage increases into your prices and have a price increase? The weight of offshoring, which is growing. Could you tell us more about your midterm objectives? That is the percentage of target offshore, offshoring of your business. Could you tell us more about the weight of offshore for continental Europe as a percentage, an overall percentage? Thank you.
Right. Your first question was about the pipeline for Sopra Banking in 2023. Well, we have quite a lot of things in the pipeline, a good business pipeline. The end of the year was very positive. We started reaping the fruit of our investments in the digital offer.
As we speak, I'd say that for Sopra Banking, we consider that today we could be again looking or expecting growth in 2023. Growth that would be drawn by the digital offer. So far we've delivered EUR 4 million. Those are the R&D gains in 2021. Now we've reached 10, so that's 1/2 what we have in the plan. We'll continue to roll out the plan, but probably we'll refocus more on the development of the digital offer. That's where the market is. We've seen that if you look at our pipeline, and we'll accelerate the go to market. The second question had to do with price setting and wages. If you look at prices and wages, it's quite positive for us.
If we look at 2022 for all of our geographies, our selling prices were above the increase in average salaries. If you look at France, average selling prices were up 4% and salaries were only up 3%. How come? As you know, we're quite proactive in terms of our selling prices because we go upmarket. If you look at our HR policy, it's quite clear. That is our intention is to say we have in between 70%-80% of the people whom we hire, who are fresh outs, up to two years of experience. We're going to train them, therefore we'll have a better control over our age pyramid, the average age, the average wage. With that, we can have good salary increases as well, so that we can keep the teams that have joined us.
In 2023, I don't think the trend's going to change. We're going to continue on the same lines. The third question had to do with offshoring. Well, what we're looking for is continual improvement, and our target would be in between 20% and 25% that would be offshored. That's total headcount. I can't give you a more specific breakdown, country-based breakdown. For continental Europe, we're growing fast.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Next question from Aditya Buddhavarapu from Bank of America.
Hello. Thanks for taking my question. Just a couple from my side. You've done a few acquisitions in 2022, CS Group, Tobania. As we look ahead to 2023, can you talk about the pipeline for M&A and what your main area of focus is going to be? Second question, you've talked about the benefits on cost from the real estate or property consolidation. How much of that should we expect to come in 2022? What's the benefit of that? If you could just talk about that. Thank you.
Look, Buddavarapu. As far as our M&A strategy is concerned, I'll start with that. Well, 2022 is a year that really represents what we intend to do with M&A. That is, there are two thrusts. First, there's the bolt-on acquisitions. That's what we do so that we can either beef up our offer or be stronger in one vertical or one business line, for instance, consulting. It can be a vertical. For instance, with the acquisition of CS, this is what we've done. That's bolt-on acquisition. The second dimension is that we want to grow our market shares in the countries that we think are key for the group. For example, in 2022, that was the case for Tobania. What happened in 2022 really is typical of what we do that's enshrined in our strategy.
We don't intend to have M&A acquisitions that would be bigger than that, would change Sopra Steria. We want things to be under control, things that we can swallow up easily. Etienne will answer the cost of real estate. As Cyril said before, well, versus 2022, we think we're going to have 30 basis points gain on operating profit due to the fact that we've reduced our footprint with real estate.
Thank you. In that context, can I just ask one follow-up? I mean, I think like a similar question. Given you're seeing growth about 3%-5% benefits from real estate, I mean, why don't you think the 2023 margins can be even a bit better than that, just about 9%? Maybe there's some dilution from the acquisitions you're doing, but can you just talk about why the margins wouldn't be higher than that 9% you talked about?
Yes. Our reasoning is at constant perimeter, of course. If we do acquire, I mean, some companies by 2025, we, you have in absolute terms an increase in terms of real estate costs. Those company are presumably also engaged in a reduction plan in terms of real estate costs. We'll see. We do think at constant perimeter, of course.
All right. Thank you.
We have another question from Derric Marcon from Societe Generale. The floor is yours.
Good morning. I have several questions to ask. The first one is the impact of SFT on Sopra Banking Software. Will some products be phased out or some maintenance contracts come to an end or subscription come to an end, subscription contracts? Are there direct links? I understand what you've said about the run, the fact that you want to keep your position in the JV. What I was interested in is the link between SBS and SFT. That is, given the discussions you have with the banks. The second question about SBS. Your European competitor talked about the fact that the tier 1, tier 2 customers are increasing their demand. Is that something that you've seen at the end of 2022 that would give you more confidence in 2023?
Finally, can you tell us more about subscription adoption of SaaS than the term licenses in the light of the targets you had at the beginning of 2022 and your actuals. Can you tell us more about your outlook for 2023? Will we see the same trends that we've seen in the past two years and a shift towards a subscription that would continue? The third question has to do with the U.K. . Can you tell us more about outlook for 2023? Some people are concerned. The investors, the macro investors are concerned. After two years of growth, as you said, is there still a potential for growth in 2023? Is it something that's secured given what you can see today?
My fourth question has to do with your growth in 2023. Q1 is at more than 5% organic growth in 2023. If we look at the upper part of the bracket for the guidance in 2023, it's more or less the same growth in H1 and H2. In the worst case scenario of 0.5% organic growth through a year, you expect an acceleration of growth on the basis of what you're going to have in Q1, despite the fact that you're going to have fewer working days in Q3 or Q4, I think versus Q1 and Q2. Thank you.
Hello, Derric. I'll try and answer your questions on the potential impact on SBS of SFT. The project that is SFT is based on products that will be delivered by SBS.
In the period that starts now, SBS will continue and bill for maintenance products. It'll still be the case until there's a possible migration in two or three years. Nothing will change, we think, as far as that is concerned. Then as far as projects and services are concerned, the business has gone down a lot this year and will stop. For SBS maintenance products, there's no change to be expected.
Thank you, Etienne.
Then Temenos has seen a sharp improvement on the market. We've seen the same. That's why I said that there's quite a lot in the pipeline for us and therefore, said, well, we'll probably be back to growth after two flattish years. Back to growth for banking, which will be based on the digital offer and also subscription.
Well, to tell you something about subscription, that was your following question. For subscription and SaaS, for Sopra Banking, we delivered EUR 64 million. That's for financial year 2022, therefore up 6% versus financial year 2021. To answer your question on U.K. and our 2023 outlook. Well, we have a high level of confidence. In the U.K., we have two-thirds of our revenue based on the platform, multi-annual platform, embedded platform business. We just signed off renewals, but also extensions of scope and contract extensions. We have quite a lot in the pipeline as well. We've had quite a lot of savings for the U.K. administration given the challenges that they have. When I listen to the head of U.K., He says that he has quite a lot of confidence.
He's not really worried with Sopra Steria. We have a good level of confidence in 2023. To answer your question on the growth in U.K. in 2023. The group growth and the upper part of the bracket, that is 5%. No, this is not growth that would accelerate. We started off a bit better than the peak announced for the annual growth. That is the 5%, is the mid-level scenario where growth would not accelerate. If growth is confirmed and is quite solid during H2, then we would probably have to slightly modify our guidance, but we don't have that type of visibility right now.
I have another question about the EUR 60 million of SaaS subscription. What about your term licenses, please?
Are there direct links with the plug six on SaaS subscription and term license, or was the trend flat on term licenses?
My answer is that with licenses, we're slightly below the level we had in 2021. That is for EUR 6 million. We had EUR 50 million in 2021. That's connected to the number of deals that we've signed off. There's no direct link with the level of subscription. In 2023, what we anticipate is more or less the same level of licenses. There's no direct link.
A question on your digital business. I was thinking that the numbers were really minimal, but maybe that was for the front office business. You're saying that for digital, there is a strong demand if you look at the customers. That could be good for your growth in 2023. What's the percentage in terms of revenue for either software or Sopra Banking Software in general for the digital business of yours?
Well, we look at licenses, maintenance, subscription. That's the information we give you. Otherwise, what we can say is that subscription will accelerate during the financial year. The growth was quite modest in 2022 at 6%. Our growth is going to be higher, quite a lot higher in 2023.
We have no more oral questions, now we'll move on to the written questions. First written question from Gregory Ramirez. Operational margin target of 10% in 2024 and operational margin guidance for 2023, slightly above 9%. Does this take into account CS and Tobania? The answer is yes. Second question from Gregory Ramirez. What would be a reasonable operational margin for Sopra Banking Software in 2023 and 2024? What is the impact of the stoppage of the Sparda contract? For SBS, I've spoken about this before. We've decided, as we've made good progress with the R&D transformation program, almost 50% of the savings were made in two years, we're slightly ahead.
We do have a market, we're not going to stop, but we'll reduce to be able to free up capacity to develop our digital offers, and as a result, a return to growth in SBS. We're not planning an improvement in margin in 2023. We're planning a return to growth, and that is the scenario that we're focusing on today. For Spada? Yeah, for Spada, more broadly speaking, the question behind this is perhaps the development strategy for Germany because potential discontinuation of the Spada program could slow things down in Germany, which does have a significant weighting in SBS, EUR 20 million in Germany for 2022. This won't impact European development or development in Africa.
Single digit growth in 2023 for SBS. We have no more written questions. I will hand the floor back to Stéphane Lelux to conclude. Thank you for being present this morning. Thank you for listening. I wish you an excellent day. Th ank you and goodbye.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. You can hang up from the telephone conference. Thank you very much.