Good morning and welcome to this Presentation of CapMan's Full Year Results 2024. Presenting today, we have Pia Kåll, CEO of CapMan, and my name is Charlotte Wessman, Director of Communications. After the presentation, we will have a Q&A session, and you are welcome to send in questions at any time using the chat box in the webcast link. Pia, I hand over to you.
Thank you, Charlotte, and welcome also from my side to this full year 2024 financial results for CapMan. 2024 was a strong year for CapMan. We achieved several strategic milestones, and we had strong financial performance across the board. Our assets under management by year-end stand at EUR 6.1 billion, a record high. It's a 22% growth compared to 2023, half of the growth coming from our acquisition of Dasos Capital, and half of the growth from new capital raised in total, EUR 570 million of new capital raised during last year.
Our turnover at EUR 57.6 million, a 17% growth, comes both from fee income growth, growing in line with assets under management, but also carried interest growing compared to the previous year. Our comparable EBIT stands at EUR 19 million, a significant improvement from just below EUR 1 million in 2023, driven by all three key earnings components contributing positively.
We also achieved several strategic milestones during the year that take us towards both growth and transforming us into a real asset specialist. In March, we completed the acquisition of Dasos Capital, established Natural Capital as a new investment area for CapMan, and it's complementing our real estate and infrastructure strategies, making us a real asset specialist with 80+% of our assets under management within real assets. In October, we announced the divestment of our service business, CaPS. It strengthens our focus on now being a pure asset management investor specialist, and with the proceeds from the divestment, we will fuel more growth in the asset management business, and we are also looking to decrease external debt and enable strong dividend distribution.
Our dividend distribution for 2024, the board of directors expects a total dividend of EUR 0.14 per share for 2024, a significant increase compared to the previous year. In our investments and in the value creation we do, we are building the society we want to see in the future, and we have a significant impact on the Nordic economies. We are developing human-centric sustainable real estate in more than 220 properties. We are an owner in 49 portfolio companies within infrastructure and private equity, supporting them to grow and be part of the green transition. We are managing 240,000 hectares of land in a responsible, sustainable way, timberland assets all across Europe. From a shareholder perspective, we're creating value through our two business segments: management company business, where we manage assets across our investment areas, generating fee profit and also carried interest when we do exits from our funds.
Our investment business, which is our balance sheet investments primarily into our own funds, is generating investment returns, but it's also a way to accelerate growth of our management company business. When we look at our key financials across these key value drivers, we see strong performance across the board: fee profit at EUR 6.9 million and 81% growth compared to the previous year, and over the past three years, on average or annually, a 34% growth. So fee profit clearly growing faster than our fee income and the business showing its scalability. Carried interest at EUR 4.3 million, also an increase compared to 2023 and close to the average for the last three years of EUR 5.7 million. From the investment business, we now have private asset investments at a fair value of EUR 167 million.
For 2024, EUR 7.8 million or a 4.5% positive fair value change, with our own funds contributing positively across the board of an 8% and our external funds having a slight negative impact during 2024. Looking deeper at each of the components, we see fee income growing at a 15% per year, very much following assets under management. Our fee profit, on the other hand, growing 81% to EUR 6.9 million, where we see the fee profit margin improving from 8%- 13% during last year, where we have a scalable business that when we grow, we get scale benefits and also improved margins. For our balance sheet investment allocation, total balance sheet at EUR 262 million, we have EUR 94 million in cash and money market funds and a fair value of our private asset funds at EUR 167 million.
It's a well-diversified portfolio, and over the coming years, we expect significant positive cash flow from this portfolio. It can be noted that the value of the external funds decreased, especially in Q4, where we completed a secondary transaction in December, where we sold off some of our fund of funds that were not CapMan funds. This is in line with our objective to focus the balance sheet to support our own funds and growth there. Looking at the fair value changes, this is a long-term business and should be viewed over several years. For the past three years, on average, an annual growth of just above 8%. In 2024, a 4.5% increase or EUR 7.8 million. Here, our own funds contributing 7% or an EUR 8 million increase.
Here, we had a positive contribution across all investment areas in Q4, whereas external funds for the full year slightly negative, negative EUR 0.5 million. Overall, still a significant improvement compared to 2023, where we had a negative fair value impact. Adding up all the earnings components, we see strong growth across the board contributing to a Comparable EBIT of EUR 19 million. Fee profit at EUR 6.9 and 81% growth, carried interest EUR 4.3, also there significant growth, 38% compared to previous year, taking us to a cash impacting EBIT of EUR 11.2 million, excluding the fair value changes, and then adding the positive fair value changes, taking us to EUR 19 million, which is significantly above the previous year where we stood at EUR 0.8 million. Our balance sheet continues to be strong, and we have a very good liquidity at the moment.
Equity ratio at 59% and cash and money market funds at EUR 94 million. With the strong liquidity, we will support growth of our asset management business, where we have several initiatives ongoing, both organic and inorganic, and the objective is to decrease interest-bearing debt and also enable strong dividend distributions to our shareholders. If we then leave the 2024 numbers for a moment and take a broader look at both the market we operate in and also the strategy implementation and where we stand with that. Starting with the market, 2024 continued to be a difficult year. It was the third year in a row when fundraising continued to decline, and especially for Europe-focused funds, both real estate and infrastructure had a decline in capital intake. However, when we look at forecasts going forward, there are indications that 2025 could already be the year when market turns.
And both for infrastructure and for real estate, in 2025 and onwards, it's Europe that is expected to lead the recovery of the market. And also, it's a long-term business, so when taking a slightly longer view on the market, we see a continued healthy growth in the segments we are focusing on. So both capital intake and also assets under management for Europe-focused funds in real assets, a strong growth of 8%-10% per year. So an attractive market to be in where we are also focusing. For our growth strategy, we continue to systematically implement it. Our objective is to reach 10 billion assets under management during this strategy period. We continue to build on active value creation in our portfolios, generating strong top investment returns to our fund investors, integrating sustainability to drive financial value, and also developing CapMan as the home for top performers.
The enablers for growth are really being the preferred Nordic partner for institutional fund investors, and also when looking at our products to scale existing products, launch new ones, and also selectively look at acquisitions. For 2024, we can say it was a very active year in our portfolio. We did 30 new investments across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and found very good new investment opportunities where to deploy capital in the current market. We also did seven exits, realizing returns and distributing funds to our investors, keeping liquidity good in our funds across buyout, real estate, and also our credit fund.
Here, it can also be noted when it comes to the real estate side where there's been quite a lot of discussion, especially in Finland on the open-ended funds, that we have maintained both doing good exits, good liquidity in the funds, and we also have a very loyal investor base with extremely few redemptions, so our funds continue to operate normally in the open-ended real estate and natural capital funds. Our sustainability work is being recognized in the global benchmarks. So in the global GRESB benchmarking, five of our funds received the top five-star rating, meaning they are among the best in their peer group, and also all the other funds improved their both ratings and scores for last year. We also continue to develop CapMan as a home for top performers in the industry.
Our employee satisfaction, eNPS stands at 49, and our Inclusion Index at 85, above our target levels. Here, the thank you really goes to all of our team leaders and leadership within the company who are building a culture of performance and trust. Looking then at where the growth came from and also starting to look ahead for 2025. First, for 2024, we raised EUR 570 million of new capital, two-thirds of that coming from outside of the Nordics. Our funds continue to be attractive for international and institutional investors. And it can also be noted that out of the capital we raised, some half of it came from cross-selling new strategies to existing investors or attracting totally new investors to CapMan. So we are continuing to both broaden our investor base and also broaden the exposure of our investors to our different products.
When we look at to which products or which growth levers this capital then went, so we can grow by scaling our existing funds, launching new products to the market, and strategic acquisitions. For 2024, roughly half of the growth in assets under management came from our acquisition of Dasos Capital and establishing CapMan Natural Capital as the new investment area. For the funds raised to our funds, we held a final close in our Infrastructure II fund and Growth Equity III fund, both of these scaling significantly in size compared to the previous vintage. We also had a very good intake in our wealth investment partner programs and wealth products with more than EUR 100 million in Q4.
When it comes to our open-ended products, real estate attracted more capital into those, and also in the beginning of last year, launched CapMan Social Real Estate as a new product where we also saw capital intake in Q4. We also secured a new real estate mandate during last year of EUR 100 million. Looking then into 2025, we have two flagship funds that are preparing for fundraising. Nordic Real Estate IV started fundraising already during last year, looking for a first close this year and with a final target size of EUR 750 million. Sustainable Forest and Wood IV, the next natural capital flagship fund, is also preparing for fundraising. And when we look at overall, we have several large strategic growth initiatives ongoing that, if they realize, will accelerate growth further. And here, notably within real estate, it's not only our flagship fundraising that's ongoing.
We also have advanced discussions when it comes to partnerships, mandates, and expanding our current products that, when realized, will contribute to continued growth. Our long-term financial objectives [include] annual growth of 15%, which we achieved last year or in 2024, return on equity about 20% last year at 7%, and equity ratio about 50%, where we stand at 59% now. Also, a distribution policy to pay sustainable distributions that grow over time, and here, the board of directors expects an overall dividend distribution of EUR 0.14 per share for 2024, a clear uptick from the previous year. When it comes to the outlook estimate for 2025, we are in a long-term business. The objective is to improve our results in the long term, but also taking into consideration annual fluctuations.
Especially when it comes to carried interest, both magnitude and timing, but also fair values in our investments, these can fluctuate and impact our results significantly. For these reasons, we do not provide numeric estimates for 2025, but we estimate assets under management to grow and also the fee profit to continue to grow in 2025. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Pia. You're also welcome, Atte Rissanen, CFO at CapMan, to join the Q&A session. So let's start here with the audience and see if we have any questions in the audience.
First question I'd like to ask about, you may have mentioned it, but the net AUM growth of about EUR 100 million in Q4, where did that come from?
So in Q4, we had intake both specifically in our wealth products and Wealth IP programs, about EUR 100 million, and also in real estate in a couple of products. We took in more AUM during that period.
And regarding new initiatives for the funds in 2025, you mentioned the fourth real estate fund and then the new natural capital fund. Are you able to comment about the potential size of the second, sorry, not the second, but the natural capital fund?
So we haven't published any kind of target size yet, but it is a sizable flagship fund. You can compare it to real estate and infrastructure flagship funds.
Then the last, maybe always the trickiest question, but looking at the potential carry outlook for 2025, are you able to give any more flavor on funds that could potentially be nearing carry or anything in that regard?
So we have several funds that are either kind of above already the hurdle rate or very close to it. It's really depending on the timing of exits in 2025, where actually there are, across investment areas, exits in the pipeline in all three, actually in private equity, real estate, and infrastructure, and it depends on when they realize.
If I can elaborate on that, so as commented before, we have three funds currently in carry, meaning that each consecutive exit will generate carry to CapMan. Those are Nordic Real Estate I, NRE III, as well as Growth Equity I. In addition, there are some funds approaching carry, but as Pia mentioned, it's reliant on the exit market, but the potential is there.
Thank you, from me.
Thank you very much. We move then over to questions from our audience on the webcast. Which of your growth levers is the most significant contributor?
They are all actually quite significant, and especially when we look into 2025, because we have, when we talk about scaling, we have those flagship funds in fundraising, which of course will contribute. When we look at new products, product launches, as I mentioned, there are ongoing initiatives when it comes to mandates and partnerships that could, when they realize, contribute significantly. And then when it comes to acquisitions, we are continuously having dialogues and discussions. Again, timing, uncertain, it depends on a lot of things that need to fall in place at the same time, but it's more around timing. I would say all three contribute strongly.
And regarding the fundraising and the market, if the fundraising market continues slow also this year, are you still able to meet your growth targets?
That's the ambition and the objective, obviously. I mean, fundraising was very slow last year, and we were able to take in EUR 570 million of new capital, which I think is a good achievement or a strong achievement. And if we complement that with acquisitions, we stand behind our growth targets.
And are you expecting to launch a new buyout fund in 2025?
That is not in the plans for 2025, no.
On Nordic Real Estate IV, could you give us some color on how is the fundraising progressing towards the target size?
There are ongoing discussions, so the fundraising started or discussions started with existing investors already during last year, and that continues now. We see strong continued interest for the fund. It's more, again, a timing question when these investors have allocations and are able to allocate more, and that's determining the timing. The interest we see, and clearly in this market environment, value-add strategies are the ones that are attracting most interest from investors.
If I can maybe add on that, I'd say that just based on the fact that during 2024, we were able to raise in this difficult market EUR 250 million into real estate, the more income-driven strategies and value-add, which is the Nordic Real Estate IV fund strategy, should be even more attractive from the investor point of view. Even though it's a challenging market, we have been able to raise capital, and we're confident about the real estate IV fund as well.
Thank you. Regarding your investment portfolio, are you expecting your investment portfolio to come down in size, let's say next three years, since you are not making new investment to non-CapMan funds and big ticket funds?
Short answer is yes. We still currently have some EUR 47 million in external funds, and of that, EUR 40 million is in basically fully outside the CapMan sphere. And as those are no longer a strategic priority, those will go down. We already in Q4 sold down some EUR 10 million, so in a secondary transaction. And yeah, as exits and as the fund lifetime approaches, the remainder, that portion will go down during future years.
Was there any one-time items in management business personnel cost in Q4?
No, no significant costs that would be out of the ordinary. The main reason for the increase in Q4 compared to Q4 2023 is of course due to Dasos Capital, the new team acquired. But other than that, the slight increases are mainly due to recruitments in some of the investment areas, most specifically speaking real estate and wealth. But generally speaking, Q4 tends to be, from our personnel expense side, always the heaviest quarter, but no out- of- the- ordinary items, at least that would be material.
And on your own fund investments, venture funds seem to have clearly positive fair value change in Q4. Is there anything to note about the other investment areas or fair value changes or outflows?
Well, during Q4, fair value changes were EUR 5 million. Of that amount, 70%, so EUR 3.5 million was due to CapMan funds. Venture capital, yes, that was developing positively during Q4, but I'd say the main point is that consistently, also in Q4, but consistently during 2024, our own funds continued to develop very strongly, especially in the private equity funds. So the best ones during Q4 being buyout funds, basically.
Y es, your average fund performance during 2024?
Excuse me?
Your average fund performance during 2024.
That's a separate question.
Yes, yes.
Well, I'd say.
7% fair value increase across our own investments in our own funds.
Yeah, but generally speaking, performance has maintained at a good level. Funds are at target, above hurdle rates for the vast majority.
Thank you very much, and we don't have any more questions, so thank you both, and we also thank you for listening in and have a very nice day.
Thank you.
Thank you, goodbye.