Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Kamux Annual Results Presentation 2020. My name is Juha Kalliokoski. I'm CEO and founder of Kamux.
Good morning. My name is Marko Lehtonen. I am Kamux CFO.
First, we check Q4 in brief and over year 2020 results. Financial development. We look our outlook and financial targets, and then we summarize these. These slides tell strongly our ambition level that we want to be number one in used car retail in Europe. As we know, we published today morning our new strategy, and next Wednesday, we tell more in this Capital Markets 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 has achieved EUR 198.8 million, and our gross profit increased 18.7%, and adjusted operating profit 38.8% to EUR 7.5 million. It's very nice pair if we compare our revenue increase and adjusted operating profit because it's near three times bigger growth in operating profit compared to revenue.
Like-for-like sales was impacted by corona pandemic. And it was -1.6%, and also 2019, our like-for-like grew was 14.6%, and this result was very strong behind Q4. In Germany, middle of December, our stores put the lockdown mode, and now we are at the end 15th of March, these stores are lockdown 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 that we are in different business if we compare new car business and used car sales. In Finland, Q4 growth was line in the market growth. In Germany and Sweden, we grew very much faster than the market. There is a diagram from the revenue growth, 13.3% in Q4, and operating profit 38.8% to EUR 7.5 million.
We sold 15,733 cars in Q4, and it was 9.3% more if we compare Q4 2019, and it means that average price was little bit higher in Q4 than the previous year. Integrated services revenue grew, and it was EUR 10.2 million, 5.1% from the revenue. International growth has been stronger than in Finland, and their revenue from Integrated services is relatively lower. We do not yet similar competition in finance and insurance agreements abroad, and this was the reason why it was not stronger percentage of revenue. 2020 whole year. I'm CEO, and I can say that, whoa, it is a strong message that our concept works even despite this corona pandemic. Our revenue increased 10%, EUR 724 million, and adjusted operating profit increased by 20.8% to EUR 30.7 million
It's nice curve if we compare revenue and operating profit, and even we remember that this year was very hard, and many thanks to our customers and all the staff that we have, employees that we have. You made great job. Kamux 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, also as I mentioned that operating profit increase was very strong. We opened seven stores as we planned in last year. Our like-for-like revenue declined 3.8%. We put this year's effort to like-for-like showroom growth. Of course, we must remember that we have lockdown mode two times in Germany and also in Sweden and Finland. Not a normal market situation.
If we compare that, at the end of 2016, we had about EUR 400 million revenue, last four years we grew about 80% of our revenue, and also adjusted operating profit from EUR 17 point something million to over EUR 30 million. Many times, investors and also the management team focus a lot of the short term, but it's nice to see that we are a company which can grow in many different situations what the market have. As I mentioned, the average price rose slightly in 2020. We sold first time over 60,000 cars, 45,000 in Finland, over 10,000 in Sweden, and near 5,000 in Germany. The whole year integrated services revenue was EUR 38.1 million, 5.1% of revenue. If we compare, for example, four years back, it's about double the integrated services revenue, what we had last year.
When we grew faster abroad and there 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 two stores in Finland, Espoo and Itä-Kumpu in January, Tornio in May. Sweden three stores, Sundsvall, Stockholm, and Värmdö all Q2. Germany in Kaltenkirchen and Lübeck. We announced Gothenburg in Sweden will open in May this year. Now we have together stores Finland in 50, Sweden 20, and Germany eight, together 78 stores. Kamux started home deliveries since 2005; last year this cross-sales and home delivery it was 36% in Finland and 31% in the group. This digital buying process, cross-selling, and home deliveries were highlighted in 2020.
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 Kamux all websites FI, SE, and DE. Marko, here you are. You can tell to our financial development.
Thank you, Juha. In the fourth quarter 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 26.3%. It increased from the previous year. Equity ratio was 50.1%, slightly increased during the fourth quarter compared to the quarter three and of course, also compared to the last year. We paid at the end of the December back the revolving credit facility what we had. We 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 was in European level -23%, over -23%, and we had of course a very tight purchasing market of the used cars. Actually there was a little bit an opposite that the availability of the used cars have been tight since the second quarter last year. 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 last year worth roughly EUR 0.8 million. 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 EUR 0.13, and it increased 16% from the previous year.
Of course, all of that is creating a very solid basis for our new growth strategy. If we look at the key figures, I will make some few picks from the figures. I have to note that the trading environment in overall stayed challenging in the fourth quarter. However, the revenue grew 13.3%, and throughout 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 fourth quarter, the like-for-like showrooms sales decline was slowing down, so it was -1.6%, and for the whole year being -3.8%. As we were preparing our growth strategy, we increased the stock levels, and despite this increase, the inventory turnover stayed in good levels, still being 47.2 days.
If we move to our reporting segments, in Finland, very solid performance in the fourth quarter. The revenue increased 7.9%, and the relative gross margin and relative EBIT margin was increasing. Integrated services revenue was increasing and being 6%, which was a touchdown 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 fourth quarter. Despite certain 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 December.
What is, of course, interesting that actually at the end of last year or in the fourth quarter, the Swedish crown was getting stronger; in any case, the export to Finland was growing strongly, almost 80% compared to the previous year. 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 the 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 fourth quarter despite the lockdown, which started 16th of December, and we started the remote selling. Have to note that during the whole fourth quarter, 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, 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 that 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 EUR 4 million, being, of course, a bit more than last year. Integrated service revenue was increasing and was EUR 8 million and 4.1% of the external revenue also touched down from the previous year. In Germany, the growth was driven by new showrooms. 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.
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, it's higher. Now there is a certain step change. Also, what was slightly impacting our net working capital was that Finnish Customs was 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. If we look at the cash flow from the operations, of course, it was very strongly reflecting our growth orientation there. Cash flow from operations was positive in the fourth quarter, but as you can see, we invested heavily to increase the stock we have. 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 of course, this is not contradicting our new strategy. Of course, in the fourth quarter, our investments were directed mainly to our digital functions, which has been also the case in the earlier quarters. Of course, now coming forward, there will be other new focus areas for our investments, but that I will tell slightly later. Our dividend proposal. The board of directors will propose to Annual General Meeting a dividend of EUR 0.24 per share to be distributed for the year 2020. Earnings per share 2020 were EUR 0.58, and the proposed dividend is 41% of the net profit. The Annual General Meeting will be held on April 20th, 2021 in Helsinki. 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 and get close or to the targets regarding the revenue growth, and that we did. We are moving to the very exciting area, which is our company's strategic focus areas for 2021 and to 2023.
We will then discuss these more in depth and in detail in our Capital Markets Day. I am shortly going through the main cornerstones we have here. If we start with the omnichannel customer experience and services, we aim at seamless omnichannel services and the best digital purchase path on the market. Our customer proposition is focusing on attractive prices and trust. We also employ a customer-oriented approach in developing new services. Concrete examples of that will be following next week. Utilizing data and leading with the knowledge. With us, data and analytics guide sales, purchasing, and pricing. We also utilize data to developing the customer experience, especially in the online shopping. Efficient processes and scalability. We improve the efficiency of processes , logistics, and industrialize them. Going forward, we will open fewer number but larger new showrooms.
Of course, 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. 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. Of course, we are very proud to offer these employment opportunities. I move to our outlook and financial targets 2021 to 2023. Our financial target setting is based on our strong growth ambitions during the strategy period.
Also, our aim is to grow our annual operating adjusted profit, and this growth and scalability will drive this profit increase. If I go this one by one now through, target revenue growth annually over 20%, 2020, we achieved 10%. Target adjusted operating profit, target is to annually increasing. Last year, we had EUR 30.7 million. adjusted operating profit margin over 3.5%. Last year, we had 4.2%. Return on equity over 25% target. Last year, we had 23.3%. Dividend, at least 25% of net profits. Last year's proposal from the board of directors is 41%. I 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 Kamux Group.
In 2021, Kamux expects the revenue to be between EUR 800 million-EUR 850 million and adjusted operating profit to increase from the previous year's 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 three-year strategy period. Of course, also coronavirus pandemic is among us. It has not yet disappeared from the picture. I will now then summarize this all. In the fourth quarter 2020, our revenue increased by 13.3%, being EUR 198.8 million. Our gross profit increased by 18.7%, being EUR 23.8 million. Our adjusted operating profit increased by 38.8% to EUR 7.5 million. Kamux's growth was strong and very profitable despite the 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? When should we expect integrated services in Sweden at the same level than Finland?
If I start, of course, we must compare the external revenue. Now we tell about the whole revenue what we have in Sweden. We must take off the sales to Kamux Suomi over to Finland, and then we compare what is the integrated services revenue is higher than this % what we have now. Of course, we don't have so good agreements in Sweden just now what we have in Finland. 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 three-year period. It's a very big 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. We think that the mix is coming, maybe the same. Of course, we need new type of knowledge what we need in the company. Maybe we can tell about this also more in the next Wednesday, when we have the Capital Markets 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, when we have tell something about the new openings. Now we have this Gothenburg in SwedenGothenburg, what we open in May. As Marko mentioned, that the new strategy tell that we open bigger stores with what we have average nowadays in all countries.
Is the Finnish margin sustainable 6.7%?
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. Our outlook or also our financial targets, they are 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. We have also many investors to whom a dividend is very important. We try to find the delicate balance there in between. What I want to outline is that 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-19?
We didn't say it out, never. Of course, it should be positive. We tell only the whole growth competition what we have. Today morning we told about these targets. 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 1,700 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 1,700 people after three years.
Earnings per share growth of 16% is lower than the EBIT growth of 37.5%, 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 there, which was interesting in that sense that also in the fourth quarter, the Swedish crown was getting quite much stronger.
Of course, with that development, our financing cost was increasing, and that was partially offset by the tax asset that we recognized in Sweden.
Revenue growth of over 20% is very significant. Where shall it come from? Mainly rollout in Sweden or new markets beyond your three existing markets?
We grow in these three countries where we are. This market size is about EUR 100 billion, and our last year's revenue was EUR 724 million. It means that we have 0.72% market share in these total three countries market share. We see that we have potential growth in these countries. We don't say not, but the focus is in these three countries next coming three years.
Do you see a threat of autonomous vehicles reducing the need to own vehicles in the midterm? Elon Musk, world's richest Auto CEO, estimates these vehicles to be ready by 2022.
Currently, we don't see it as a big threat. If we also look like, for example, this particular winter, which has been very harsh in Nordic countries and 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.
In the long run, are Finnish margins reachable for Germany and Sweden?
I would define the question in the same way that when we look on the long run, 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 compete with AUTO1 Group in Germany and whether their IPO and increased financial flexibility will change the competitive landscape?
As we mentioned that the market is huge, it's EUR 100 billion, and there can be different players in all markets. For example, in Sweden, there are local competitors, and there can future be players which have the bigger or many countries as AUTO1. They have quite a different concept what we have. If I understood right, their revenue coming 70%-80% from business-to-business sales and only 10,000 sold cars to consumers. It was online sales, and they don't have so many stores. Of course, welcome to the market, and there are rooms to grow both and many players.
The tougher trading environment you have seen in December, 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 expected to continue at least until mid-March. Answer is yes, we are not back to normal.
Operator, have we got any questions by phone?
I will do a reminder. Just a reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you do wish to withdraw your question, you can do so by pressing zero two on your telephone keypad. There will be a brief pause while questions are being registered. I don't see we have any questions from the lines. I will hand it back to our speakers.
We are ready to wrap.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, and have a nice weekend. Bye-bye.