A very good morning to you all and welcome Catman's Q1 result presentation. My name is Jokim Fried Mordig. I'm the CEO of the company. To the Q1. In the Q1, we saw that the strong result development that started at the end of last year continued And operating profit for CAPPAN in the Q1 exceeded €10,000,000 I'm happy to see that the efforts that we have put in recent years in growing our fee base and in improving the value creation of our investments are now truly starting to show in our financial results.
Let me start by giving you some highlights of the Q1. Our assets under management continued to grow. They were at €3,900,000,000 at the end of March. That's a growth of to €700,000,000 or 20 percent during the last 12 months. And we foresee further growth to this year driven by ongoing and planned new fundraising projects.
At the same time, we see that A growing share of our assets under management is coming from international investors. At the end of March, Approximately 50% of our assets under management came from outside the Nordic area. This is a big development in the last 3 years. The corresponding figure 3 years ago was about 10%. This growing international investor base gives us a good foundation for future growth.
As said, result development has continued strong in the beginning of 2021. Our EBIT was €10,000,000 in the Q1. Our EPS was €0.05 and our return on equity was close to 30% on an annualized basis. Our management company business continues to Develop Well. The turnover grew by 15%, and that combined with good cost efficiency meant that our EBIT in that business grew by to more than 15%, 30%.
The largest contributor to our operating profit in the Q1 was the fair value development of our own investments. The positive fair value development was over €8,000,000 that supported by a positive overall market sentiment, but in particular successful value creation work done in many of our funds. To we have several funds that are in carry or approaching carried interest and that is high on our agenda this year. To this spring, our Annual General Meeting decided on a distribution of €0.14 per share. It means that for the 8th consecutive year, this distribution to our shareholders is growing.
This year, the payment takes place in 2 installments. The first installment was paid in March and the second one will be paid in September of this year. To the next slide. Here you can see our turnover and operating profit for the Q1 in relation to last year's to figures. If you look at the operating profit figure, I said €10,100,000 And of course, the comparison period was to exceptional.
It was minus SEK 6,000,000 last year Q1, but there we saw the biggest impact of the COVID crisis on our business and a downturn in our fair values, but even so an improvement of SEK 16,000,000 in operating profit. To the next question. When it comes to turnover, we are slightly below last year's level with SEK 11,300,000 in turnover. In the comparison period, we had a substantial success fee related to our Fundraising Advisory business that has since been discontinued. Excluding the impacts of that discontinued business, the rest of our operations grew by approximately to 15%.
Here is a longer time series of our quarterly EBIT going back the last to 3 years. And here you can see the most direct impacts of the pandemic taking place in Q1, in particular of last year, but also a subdued development in Q2 and Q3. But as you might recall, in the last quarter of last year, We saw a clear pickup. There we posted an EBIT of close to €10,000,000 And I'm happy to say that this positive trend has continued into this year. So we are back on track.
Perhaps worth noting, as you look at the time series, the Q4 for in 2018. There we saw negative fair value change of our market portfolio. There was a downturn in the equity market at the end of that year, but that, of course, has subsequently been divested, so we do not have that exposure anymore. To our segments. We report 3 segments, our Management Company Business, to where we managed approximately €4,000,000,000 through our funds and through our 6 investment areas.
From this part of the business. We earned management fees and carried interest income. We have a Service business from which we get service fees and then our own balance sheet investments where we record returns from own investments and fair value changes. To the change that we have done this year is that Catman Wealth Services that used to be part of our Service business is now being reported as part of the management company business. That business has more similarities with the management company business with the renewed business model than with the service business.
It serves largely the same client base and has a similar earnings model based on management fees and assets under management, hence this change. To the next slide. And here you can see a breakdown of the operating profit for the first quarter and the comparison to the similar period last year. So you can see when it comes to management fee, profits SEK 2 point to SEK 4,000,000 in the Q1, that's an improvement of SEK 600,000. Carried interest was modest the first quarter.
To Service fee profits below last year's level for the reasons I explained earlier. And then the very strong improvement in the Investment business, so plus SEK 16,000,000 there. When it comes to general overhead costs, We were able to reduce those by approximately SEK1 1,000,000 from the levels of last year. So overall, this ends up with the SEK10.1 million EBIT. To and here again slightly longer time perspective from 2017.
Going back 4 years you can see the development of our fee base. So we have been able to grow our fee based revenues by an average of 14% per annum to management fees by approximately 17% per annum. But more importantly, we have been able to quadruple our fee profits since to 2018. And from the level that we are now, we are looking for growth. Our objective is to improve the aggregate stability of the Management Company and Service Business this year.
So this trend is set to continue. To another thing we have been closely following and paying attention to is the level of recurring turnover and increasing its share. That has been steadily growing throughout the pandemic as well, so an average of 16% annual growth there. And then also the other metric we have been following is our fixed cost to see that we have an improvement in our cost efficiency. And there you can see that the fixed costs have remained fairly flat during the last year and the ratio of recurring turnover to fixed to costs has improved and is now 132%.
And if you look at the operating costs as an absolute figure in the Q1 this year compared to the similar period last year, we are roughly at par. If we then turn to the balance sheet, balance sheet is still strong. We have a good liquidity position. So at the end of March, book equity at approximately €100,000,000 an equity ratio of 45 percent to liquid assets close to €50,000,000 and in addition an undrawn credit limit of €40,000,000 Worth noting 2 things. The first thing is that typically at the end of Q1 after dividend payments, our equity and equity ratios to our at their lowest level during the year.
And also worth noting that even though only the first part of the dividend or distribution was paid, this to spring. The full amount is deducted from our book equity and hence, equity ratio. To the IF we look at our own balance sheet investments, they have grown. They were SEK 100 and NOK62 1,000,000 at the end of March last year, now NOK178 1,000,000 and an increasing part of that is being invested into private market to MENS and our own funds. This is in line with our strategy and with our objectives.
So approximately SEK130 1,000,000 in Private Market Investments. Market portfolio has been sold down and the rest of own investments are in liquid form in cash. To the next question. Here you can see how our balance sheet exposure has changed during the last 10 years. I think to increased diversification is the main trend you can see here and you can see it also that this is very much in line with how our general business has to Developed, so a fairly even distribution at the end of March.
You can also note that there are to significant undrawn commitments that we have made to fund approximately €100,000,000 and their distribution by different to Investment Strategies. We are looking for significant returns from the investments that we make into our own funds. From the private equity and credit part, we are looking on average on 15% returns from the Real Estate part, 8% to 15% and on the infra part, 10% to 13%. So with to the blended rate falls within the 10% to 15% range. Last year with the pandemic, we were below that range.
But in the beginning of this year, Q1, we are significantly above that run rate. And as you might recall, when it comes to balance sheet, we have 3 main functions for our balance sheet: making good returns on our own investments, facilitating the growth of our fee based business and having flexibility to ensure a stable and growing distribution to our shareholders. To If I then say a few words about our strategy and where we are at the moment, The vision remains unchanged. So we are looking to be a Nordic private asset powerhouse, and we believe that Three key elements need to be in place for us to have this position. We need to be top value creators in our chosen strategies within the private to Asset Market.
We need to have a broad investor base and access to international capital, and we also need to be innovative to creating new products and solutions for our investors be at the forefront in the market development. To once we have this in place, we can be the private asset powerhouse and we have this virtuous circle operating for us. To the next slide. If you have been following us during recent years, you will have seen this slide before. This is the key components of our current strategy when it comes to strategic directions.
We have 3 main topics that we have been working on. We have been broadening our access to capital from traditional Nordic Tier 1 Investors to international investors on one hand and to smaller to local Nordic Tier 2 and 3 investors on the other hand. The second topic has been to introduce new and flexible products, to complementing our traditional offering of closed end funds with other structures such as open ended funds, mandates and end club deals. And when it comes to the investment activities, we have been broadening our offering within the private asset space, so introducing to Infrastructure introducing new strategies under Private Equity as well as under Real Estate in recent years, and in all focus on active value creation. And if we look at some of the results so far, If you look at through these three different objectives, you can see the situation in 2016 just before the strategy new strategy and then the situation at the end of March of this year.
First thing to note is that, of to the total assets under management has grown from SEK 2,700,000,000 to SEK 3,900,000,000. And when it comes to the broadening of access to capital, You can see that at the end of 2016, international investors, about 10% of the assets under management and smaller local investors, 5%. Now international investors are close to 50% and the local investors has grown from 5% to 11%. When it comes to introducing new types of products. Closed end funds made up almost 100% of assets under management at the end of 20 Trixtine, but now their share is about 2 thirds.
So we have been introducing new open ended and mandates in recent years. To and when it comes to broadening the offering, you can see that we have introduced completely new investment areas and also within existing traditional investment areas such as real estate, we have been introducing a number of new products, to complementing, let's say, the value add real estate business, which is the more traditional part of that with a substantial income based real estate product to portfolio. So we are heading in the right direction, but we will continue to work along these strategic lines. To and when it comes to the total assets under management, we are at an all time high. At the end of March at €3,900,000,000 We have been able to make a turnaround in the development in recent years and we are now in a position where we can boost growth in coming years based on the Strategic Initiatives and the guidelines I just briefly mentioned to you.
We foresee a continued growth in our assets under management. This year, we have a number of ongoing fundraising projects and we are launching new ones. When it comes to the real estate side. This summer, we are looking to launch a new real estate fund, a significant one to complement to our existing offering, but utilizing the know how of the existing team and the existing resources there. To our Special Situation Fund is looking to make its 2nd closing in the Q2 of this year and is likely to achieve about half of target size by that date.
When it comes to the next credit fund, our Nest III fund, there we are looking for a first closing of the fund within a few weeks. And our first infra fund has been largely already deployed, to the next question. So we are making preparations for the fundraising of the 2nd fund, which is to take place and be initiated in the second half of this year. These initiatives together with the other ones mentioned here will drive further growth in our assets under management. To We also have significant carried interest potential in several funds.
And following the successful value creation work, which is exemplified by the fair value developments of recent quarters, Many of our funds hold significant carried interest potential, and we are looking to realize that in coming quarters. We have a number of exit processes ongoing. And when we are successful in those, then we will move closer to this potential and realizing it. This is high on our agenda this year. To We have been developing Kathmand Wealth Services as a new interface towards Family Offices, Foundations and High Net Worth Individuals.
We have been strengthening the team recently, and we are now in a good position to harvest on the potential here. This broadens CAPMAN's reach to new client segments. It is in line with our strategy when I showed that we want to increase the share of Tier 2 and 3 investors. And we are working on a number of projects which is improving our pipeline all the time. If you look at the Q1, the impact on figures of this business was very moderate, but we now are in a position where we can look for strong growth over coming quarters years, and we have the core team in place.
To our Service business. As we reported, now consists of 2 business areas. It's CAPS Procurement Services and J Solutions Reporting Business. Both developed well in the Q1. So to KAPS continued on its profitable growth path that it has been on for several years.
And J Solutions also grew substantially in terms of top line, over 40% top line growth and positive also to note that there have been new B2B contracts won in early to 2021. These two businesses combined grew by approximately 15% in the Q1 of this year. To As mentioned earlier, the decision by the Annual General Meeting this spring was to PeiO distribution of SEK0.14 per share to our shareholders. And as said, now it's being paid in semi annual installments. So SEK0.07 was paid in March of this year and SEK0.07 will be paid in September to 2021.
And with this decision, the distribution, as said, is growing for the 8th consecutive year. To the next slide. These are our long term financial objectives. So we are looking for growth of over 10% return on equity over 20% equity ratio in excess of 60% and then our distribution target of annually growing dividend distributions. Here you can see a longer historic time series or actually reflecting the current strategy period 2017 to 2020.
In terms of growth. We are on track there, although the Q1 was a negative figure for the before mentioned reasons. To the Q1, but overall we are on a good growth track there. When it comes to return on equity, we have not in recent years been able to deliver on the to objective level. It has been around 11% on average in the Q1 with the strong EBIT and EPS.
Our return on equity was 29% on an annualized basis, so trending clearly in the right direction. To equity ratio historically around the 60% mark, now at the end of March 45%, but as mentioned, typically at its lowest at the end of Q1 after dividend distribution. And when it comes to distribution, as already mentioned a couple of times, there we have been following our to for the last 8 years. Outlook estimate is unchanged. We note that we are looking to grow our assets under management this year.
Our objective is also to improve the aggregate profitability of the managed company and Service businesses. To the next question. We also note that CAPPAN does not provide a numerical estimate for 2021. This concludes the result presentation of the Q1. As said, we are off to a good start to this year and I thank you for your attention this morning.
Thank you.