Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Camux Annual Results Presentation 2020. My name is Joakral Legoski. I'm CEO and Founder of Camux.
Good morning. My name is Marco Lehtonen. I am Camux's CFO.
First, we check Q4 in brief and overview to 2020 results. After that, financial development. Then we look our outlook and financial targets, and then we summarize these. These slides Tell us strongly our ambition level that we want to be number 1 in used car retail in Europe. And as we know, we announced published today morning our new strategy.
And next Wednesday, we have we tell more in this Capital Market Day. Despite competition in Germany and Sweden, our international growth was strong. We grew in Sweden over 40% and in Germany 24.5%. Our total revenue increased 13.3% and achieved €198,800,000 And our gross profit increased 18.7 percent and adjusted operating profit, €38,800,000 to €7,500,000 And it's very nice pair if we compare our revenue increase and adjusted operating profit because it's near 3x bigger growth in operating profit compared to revenue. Like for Ryk, sales was impacted by corona pandemic, and it was minus 1.6%.
And also 2019, our like for like crew was 14.6%, And this result was very strong behind Q4. We in Germany, middle of December, Our stores put the lockdown mode, and now we are at the end of 15 March, These stores are locked down mode. If we compare new car sales and used car sales, the European region, new car sales decreased last year 23.7%. And in these markets where we are, in Germany, Finland and Sweden, It's slightly increased, and it tells us that we are in different business if we compare New Car Business and Used Car Sales. In Finland, Q4 growth It was line in the market growth.
In Germany and Sweden, we grew very much faster than the market. And there is diagram from the revenue growth, 13.3% in Q3 Q4 and operating profit, 38.8 percent to €7,500,000 And we sold 15,733 cars in Q4, And it was 9.3% more if we compare Q4 2019. It means that average price was a little bit higher in Q4 than the previous year. Integrated Services revenue grew and it was €10,200,000 5.1% from the revenue. And international growth has been stronger than in Finland, And their revenue from Integrated Services is relatively lower.
We do not yet similar condition in finance and insurance agreements abroad. And this was the reason why it was not a stronger percentage of revenue. And then 2020, our whole year. I'm CEO, and I can say that, woah, It is a strong message that our concept works even despite this corona pandemic. Our revenue increased 10%, euros 724,000,000 and Artistic operating Profit increased by 20.8 percent to €13,700,000 And it's nice curve if we compare revenue and operating profit.
And even we remember This year was very, very hard. And many thanks to our customers and all the staff, what we have employees, what we have. You made a great job. Camuk's flexibility and strongly digital business model helped to carry throughout the year, which was strongly colored by corona pandemic. Our international Growth was very strong in Sweden and Germany.
And also, as I mentioned, that operating profit increase was very strong. We opened 7 stores as we planned in last year. And our like for like revenue declined 3.8%. And we put this year's effort to like for like showroom growth. But of course, we must remember that we have locked down mode 2 times in Germany and also in Sweden and Finland, not so normal market situation.
And then if we compare at the end of 2016, We have we had about €400,000,000 revenue. And last 4 years, we grew about 80% of our revenue and also adjusted operating profit from €17,000,000 something to over €30,000,000 And many times, investors and also the management team focus a lot, lot of the short term, but it's nice See that we are the company which can grow in many different situations what the market have. As I mentioned, the average price rose slightly in 2020. And we sold, first time, over 60,000 cars, 45,000 in Finland, over 10,000 in Sweden and near 5,000 in Germany. And the whole year, Integrated Services revenue was €38,100,000 5.1% of revenue.
And if we compare, for example, 4 years back, It's about double the integrated services revenue what we had last year. Also, when we grew faster abroad and there we integrated services rose slightly compared to previous year because we don't have so good agreements, what we have and this volume of what we have in Finland. We opened 2 stores in Finland, Espon Ito Kumpo in January, Tornio in May and Sweden, 3 stores: Susspal, Stockholm and Werme, all Q2 and Germany in Kaltenkirsen and Lubeck. And we announced Katteberg in Sweden, we open in May this year. Now we have together stores, Finland in 50 Sweden, 20 and Germany, 8.
To get our 78 stores. Camux started home deliveries since 2005. And last year, it was this gross sales and home delivery, it was 36% in Finland and 31% in the group. And this digital buying process, cross selling and home deliveries were highlighted in 2020. And it's very important that we have this kind of model because, for example, COVID time, it works very well.
We have over 900,000 monthly website visits on Camux all websites, FISE and DI. And then, Marco, here you are. You can tell to our financial development.
Thank you, Juha. In the Q4 and also in the second half of the year, it was very visible in our Return on equity and in our equity ratio that we had a strong profitable growth. Return on equity was 26 point 3% and it increased from the previous year and equity ratio was 50.1%, slightly increased during the Q4 compared to the quarter 3 and of course also compared to the last year. And we paid at the end of the December back The revolving credit facility, what we had, have to bear in mind that we took the revolving credit facility at the end of March as a precautionary measure. And of course, if we would see lucrative opportunities for asset purchases.
However, as Juha was mentioning, the new car market In European level, minus 23%, over minus 23%. And we had, of course, a very tight Purchasing market of the used cars. Therefore, actually, there was a little bit on opposite that the availability of the used cars have been It's tight since the Q2 last year. Therefore, we didn't see really need to have the revolving credit facility anymore. And as everyone knows, now in the negative interest environment, it is relatively expensive to have cash.
I'm also very glad to tell that we recognized a deferred tax asset in Sweden at the end of the last year worth Roughly €800,000 And this is, of course, proof of the right development in our Swedish operations and shows our trust to these operations. The basic earnings per share were $0.13 and it increased 16% from the previous year. And of course, all of that is creating a very solid basis for our new growth strategy. Then if we look at the key figures, I will make some few picks from the figures. And I have to note that the trading environment in overall stayed challenging in the 4th quarter.
However, the revenue grew 13.3% and through the whole year, the growth was 10%. What I'm also pleased is that the gross profit and EBIT, they improved relatively versus the previous year. And also in the Q4, The like for like showrooms sales decline was slowing down, so it was minus 1.6% and for the whole year being minus 3.8%. As we were preparing to our growth strategy, we increased the stock levels. And despite this increase, the inventory turnover stayed in good levels still being 47.2 days.
Then if we move to our reporting segments. In Finland, very Solid performance in the Q4. The revenue increased 7.9%, and the relative gross margin and EBIT margin was increasing. Integrated services revenue was increasing and being 6%, which was a touch down compared to the previous year. In Finland, the growth was driven by new showrooms.
In Sweden, we had a very strong revenue growth in the 4th quarter. And despite So the increased uncertainty in the Swedish market, we managed to grow significantly. There has been a discussion at the end of last year with the society, corona pandemic measures and actions. And then we can see that, that was impacting the consumer sentiment, especially in the December. Also, what is, of course, interesting that actually at the end of last year or in the 4th Q4, The Swedish crown was getting stronger, but any case, the Expert to Finland was growing strongly, almost 80% compared to the previous year.
And this, of course, impacted relative gross margin negatively, as you can see that the gross margin was 6.7% of the total revenue. Revenue from integrated services grew relatively compared to previous year, being 2.8% from the external revenue. And growth was driven by new showrooms in Sweden. In Germany, We had a very strong revenue growth in the Q4, this bound the lockdown, which started 16th December, And we started the remote selling. Have to note that during the whole Q4, we had Relatively strict restrictions in Germany.
Amount of customers were limited in our stores, and we also had to reserve certain space for the customers and, of course, the people had to use masks. However, we can see that Despite of this environment, so the revenue increase was strong, 24.5%. And unfortunately, The measures and actions what we're taking there have been impacting our gross margin, which was relatively slightly going down to 8.5% and operating loss, Which increased to £400,000 being, of course, a bit more than last year. Integrated services revenue was increasing and was €800,000 and 4.1% of the external revenue also touched down from the previous year. In Germany, the growth was driven by new showrooms.
Then if we look at the inventories and net working capital, So as I was saying, we were starting to prepare for our new growth strategy. So typically, as you can see from the previous year, At the end of the year, the stock has been relatively lower and typically in the spring and summer season is higher, But now there is a certain step change. Also, what was slightly impacting our net working capital was that Finnish Customs Preparing for a new IT system and they were executing car tax decisions very quickly in December, which, of course, reduced our car tax debt to the government. And then if we look at the cash flow from Of course, it was very strongly reflecting our growth orientation there. Gas flow from operations was positive in the 4th quarter.
But as you can see, we invested heavily to increase the stock we have. And of course, in this business, It is impossible to grow if you don't have adequate level of stock. We continued the investments in line with our old strategy, but course, this is not contradicting our new strategy. And of course, in the Q4, our investments were directed Mainly to our digital functions, which has been also the case in the earlier quarters. And Of course, now coming forward, there will be other also new focus areas for our investments, but that I will tell slightly later.
Then our dividend proposal. The Board of Directors will propose at the Annual General Meeting a dividend of $0.24 per share to be distributed for the year 2020. Earnings per share 2020 were $0.58 and the proposed dividend is 41% of the net profit. And the Annual General Meeting will be held on April 20, 21, in Helsinki. Then I will move to the outlook and financial targets.
This is now the outlook what we had for 2019 to 2022, and this is now reflecting to the reporting period. As these are, so to say, our old outlook and financial targets, I will not Concentrate too much on that anymore. But I just want to note that we were publishing on December 16 a stock exchange release where we specified our outlook for 2020, which was that according to our current best estimate, The company will be able to reach its medium term targets regarding the operating profit margin at close or to the targets regarding the revenue growth, and that we did. Then we are moving to the very exciting area, which is our company's strategic focus areas for 2021 to 2020 3. We will then discuss these more in-depth and in detail in our Capital Markets Day, But I am shortly going through the main cornerstones we have here.
And if we start with the omnichannel customer experience and services, So we aim at seamless omni channel services and the best digital purchase path on the market. And our Our proposition is focusing on attractive prices and trust. And we also employ a customer oriented approach in developing new services. Concrete examples of that will be following next week. Then utilizing data and leading with the knowledge.
So with us, data and analytics guide sales, purchasing and pricing, and we also utilize data to developing the customer experience, especially in the online shopping. Efficient processes and scalability. We improved the efficiency of our processes and logistics and industrialize them. Also going forward, we will open Fewer number but larger new showrooms. And of course, we will also feel we will further still Develop our car inspection and other procedures related to the cars.
The aim of that is that we are Continuing to keep our fixed costs low. And the last and very important point is developing the capabilities and continuous learning. To accomplish all of this, what we want to achieve in the strategy period, We need to invest to our employees' capabilities, learning and what I'm very proud also to inform is that we will hire Approximately 1,000 new colleagues in our markets. And of course, we are very proud to offer these employment opportunities. Then I move to our outlook and financial targets 2021 to 2023.
And our financial target setting is based on our strong growth ambitions during the strategy period. And also, we our aim is to grow our annually operating adjusted profit. And this growth and scalability will drive this profit increase. So if I go this 1 by 1 now through, Target revenue growth annually over 20%. 2020, we achieved 10%.
Target adjust operating profit. Target is to annual increasing. Last year, we had €30,700,000 Adjusted operating profit margin over 3.5%. Last year, we had 4.2 Return on equity over 25 percent target. Last year, we had 26.3 Dividend, at least 25% of net profits last year.
Proposal from the Board of Directors is 41%. Have the note here now that the dividend target is very strongly now reflecting our growth ambitions, what we published today. We have also heard and listened our investors carefully. And now starting 2021, we are publishing outlook for the first time in Camux Group. And in 2021, Camux expects the revenue to be between €800,000,000 to €850,000,000 and adjusted operating profits to increase from the previous year level.
It is very important To bear in mind that we start to implement our new strategy with the full steam ahead now, but these results will Follow along the 3 years strategy period. And of course, also corona pandemic is among us. It has not yet disappeared from the picture. So I will now then summarize this all. In the Q4 2020, our revenue increased by 13.3%, being €198,800,000 Our gross profit increased by 18.7 percent, being €23,800,000 Our adjusted operating profit increased by 38.8 percent to €7,500,000 And Camux growth was strong and very profitable despite exceptional operating environment.
Thank you very much for your attention, and we are happy to answer your questions.
How do you explain the difference in integrated services in percentage of sales between Finland and Sweden? And when should we Integrated Services in Sweden at the same level than Finland.
If I start, of course, We must compare the external revenue. And now we tell about the whole revenue, what we have in Sweden, And we must take off the sales to Camux Somi or to Finland. And then we compare what is the integrated services revenue. It's higher than this percentage what we have now. But of course, we don't have so good agreements in Sweden just now what we have in Finland, And this is the other reason why the part of the revenue is smaller in Sweden than in Finland from integrated services.
Your plan is to hire around 1,000 new employees over the coming 3 year period. It's a very Jump from Today's Level. How many of them will be new salespeople?
Nowadays, we have about 80% of our employees are purchase and salespeople, most of salespeople. And we think that the mix is coming maybe the same. But of course, we need New type of knowledge what we have what we need in the company. And maybe We can tell about this also more in the next Wednesday when we have the Capital Market Day.
Can we have an idea of the expansion plan for 2021? How many new showroom openings?
We tell when we have signed the papers and when we have I'll tell something about the new openings. Now we have this Copenhagen in Sweden, what we opened in May. And as Marco mentioned at the Investor Relations Hotel that we open bigger stores with what we have averaged nowadays in all countries.
Is the Finnish margin sustainable, 6.7 percent?
If you think about the year 2020, it was relatively Exceptional by all the measures. I don't want to comment going forward, Specific country level or segment level margins, so our outlook on also our financial targets stay on the group level.
Having a 25% return on equity, why not invest more internally in growth rather than paying a dividend.
This is very interesting discussion and question, and we have many investors Who think or who have opinion that actually we should really not pay dividend. And we have also many investors to whom a dividend is very important. So we try to find that delicate balance there in between. But what I want to outline is that the now The new target setting is very much outlining our ambition for the growth.
What do you think like For like growth will be in the future after COVID-nineteen?
We didn't say it out, never, but of course, it should be positive. But We tell only the whole growth competition, what we have. And today morning, we told these targets and it's included in also like for like growth.
A follow-up question to this 1,000 new employees. Should we assume that you will have 1700 employees at the end of 2023?
We think so that, of course, we have a lot of salespeople, and there is some rotation. And it means that we don't have 1700 people after 3 years.
Earnings per share growth of 16% is lower than the EBIT growth of 27.5 While the number of shares stayed about the same, why is that so?
Yes. As I was mentioning that the export from Sweden to Finland was growing significantly and we had their which was interesting in that sense that also in the Q4. The Swedish crown was getting quite much stronger. So, of course, with that development, our, our financing cost was increasing and That was partially offset by the tax asset, what we recognized in Sweden.
Revenue growth of over 20% is very significant. Where shall it come from? Mainly rollouts in Sweden or new markets Beyond your 3 existing markets.
We grow in these three countries where we are. Our revenue this market size is about €100,000,000 And our last year revenue was €724,000,000 And it means that we have 0.72 percent market share in this total 3 countries market share. And we see that we have a potential growth in these countries. And we don't say not, but we the focus is in these three countries next coming 3 years.
Do you see a threat of autonomous vehicles reducing the need to own vehicles in the midterm? Elon Musk, Rolls Royce's Auto CEO, estimates these vehicles to be ready by 2022.
Currently, currently, we don't see it as a big threat. And if we also look like, for example, This particular winter, which has been very harsh in Nordic countries and also also in Germany. Well, I Think that the technology is not yet ready to cope with all of those challenges. What the mother nature is throwing to us at the moment here. I would define the question in the same way that we are when we look on the long run, we see we give, So to say, the targets and also now the outlook on the group level and do not comment or, so to say, give a setting per segment or per country.
Congratulations to these excellent results. Can you please explain how you Pete with AutoONE Group in Germany and whether their IPO and increased financial flexibility will change the competitive landscape.
First of all, as we mentioned that the market is huge. It's €100,000,000,000 And there can be different players in all markets that there are, For example, in Sweden, there are local competitors, and there can be, for future, be players which have the bigger or many countries as other one. But they have Quite a different concept what we have. If I understood right, TEM's revenue coming 70% to 80% from business to business sales and only 10,000 sold cars to private to consumers. And it was online sales, And they don't have not so many stores.
But of course, welcome to market, and there are Rooms to Grow, Bought and Many Players.
The tougher trading environment you have seen in Has that carried into the start of the New Year?
Especially, As Juha was mentioning, the lockdown in Germany has continued as of today, and it is It will continue until at least until mid March. So answer is yes, we are not in back to normal.
And then operator, have we got any questions by phone? I don't see we have any questions from the lines. I will hand it back to our speakers. So we are ready to wrap.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, and have a nice weekend. Bye bye.