Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Oriola's Third Quarter Interim Report Webcast. My name is Mikael Wegmüller. I'm Head of Communications and Sustainability. Today, our CEO, Katarina Gabrielson, will go through the presentation, and after that, we'll take the questions and answers. I remind you that, during the presentation, you can already upload questions. A recording of the webcast will be available on our website, oriola.com/investors. With that, I hand it over to you, Katarina.
Thank you, Mikael, and good morning and welcome to this Oriola third quarter result presentation, also on my behalf. Thanks and sorry about the mess. I'm Katarina Gabrielson, the CEO of Oriola. We will do this presentation in the same way as for quarter one and quarter two, based on the continuing operations and discontinued operations. The continuing operations consist of Services segments, and discontinued operations consist of the consumer segment, including the pharmacy operations in Sweden. We had a good quarter in quarter three as Oriola Group improved its comparable adjusted EBIT to EUR 13.5 million, which is 30% higher than 2021. The improvement was driven by our efficiency and cost saving actions related to our turnaround initiatives, as well as a good market demand in both of our markets.
In addition, the balance sheet has also strengthened throughout the year due to improved cash flow and increased results. I'm also very pleased that the continuing services business, which has been able to achieve a solid result in the current inflationary environment. For the continuing operations, invoicing increased with 4.1% on a constant currency basis, and our Adjusted EBIT improved, reaching EUR 6.6 million, which is an increase with 23%. In the discontinued operations, we had growth in online sales and our turnaround initiatives were offsetting inflation. The near term focus will now continue to be on the rigorous implementation of the turnaround initiatives and the transformation. All the actions related to our EUR 7 million cost savings targets have been implemented in 2022 in both the continuing and the discontinuing operations.
We have also progressed further in improving our efficiency, the portfolio management and the product pricing. During the quarter, we announced a new operating model to further improve the operational, commercial and supply chain excellence. This will help us to create synergies and to ensure seamless work across the markets. Right after the end of the reporting period, we finalized the combination of Kronans Apotek and Apoteksgruppen pharmacy business in Sweden into a new jointly owned company. This transaction, which has required plenty of preparations from our organization, support us in our journey towards a pharmaceutical infrastructure and healthcare distribution company. Let's now take a deeper look into the figures. In our continuing and discontinued operations, our invoicing increased by 1.3% to EUR 982 million compared to EUR 970 million previous year.
Net sales increased by 3.3% to EUR 481 million compared to EUR 486 million in quarter three, 2021. Adjusted EBIT was EUR 19.8 million compared to EUR 10.4 million previous year. It should also be noted now that Adjusted EBIT includes a positive impact of EUR 6.3 million in quarter three from the lower depreciations as discontinued operations non-current assets are classified as held for sale and not depreciated. Comparable adjusted EBITs, excluding the positive impact from depreciations was 13.5 compared to EUR 10.4 million. Improved performance compared to early years were driven by improved market environments, net sales growth and also well progressing turnaround actions in all businesses.
Let's now look at our operating environment, and we can all see overall that the consumer confidence is indeed weakening due to the all-time high inflation that we can see in the markets. Although this is not fully visible yet in the consumer behavior, this might impact consumer spending in the long run and could also have impact on Oriola in the future. The pharmaceutical wholesale market continued to grow in the third quarter compared to previous year. When we look at the value developments at the wholesale prices in Sweden, the growth was 6.6 in Swedish krona in the third quarter. In Finland, the market value grew by 4.3%. Based on our estimate, Oriola's share of the pharmaceutical wholesale market remains at the same level as previous quarter.
In dose dispensing business, Oriola offers pharmaceuticals and dose dispensing for private and public healthcare sectors. The total market size for the dose dispensing has increased slightly in both markets. The number of patients that Oriola is serving in the dose dispensing business has declined in Sweden to approximately 75,000 patients and slightly growing in Finland to about 30,000 patients. In Sweden, the regional customers arrange public tenders, processes from time to time, and this is the reason why the decrease is in Sweden now.
Because due to this process, we have lost a regional customer in the dose dispensing, and therefore, the number of patients has declined to 75,000 from 105,000 in quarter two of 2022. If you look at the pharmacy market, this is then also this last time that we now look at the pharmacy market from our point of view. The pharmacy market in Sweden grew by 5.7% in quarter three. The total online pharmacy market growth has been stabilizing from 2021, and the growth was 9% in the third quarter. The online pharmacy's share of the total pharmacy market remained at the same level as in previous quarters, and it was 19% at the end of third quarter.
Oriola's online sale growth was higher than the market and grew by 18% in the third quarter. The market share for Oriola in the Swedish pharmacy market in quarter three was about 16%. Let's look at the segments that we have and also go through the development in the segments. Let's start with the continuing operations, Oriola Services, and the performance that we have here. Both the pharmaceutical market value and the volume grew in quarter three in both Sweden and Finland. The quarter three invoicing increased by 1.4% to EUR 871 million compared to EUR 859 million. The net sales grew by 4.1% to EUR 374 million compared to EUR 359 million.
This growth was driven by the market growth as well as new customer agreements in the pharmaceutical distribution. The Adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 8.7 million compared to EUR 7.7 million, driven by the net sales growth and the turnaround initiatives. However, the cost inflation, the production challenges, and the lower number of dose patients in Sweden limited the EBIT improvements. Looking at the discontinued operations in the consumer segment, the consumer net sales decreased by 3.2% to EUR 194 million compared to EUR 200 million. In the constant currency, the growth was 0.9%. Our online channel grew faster than the market in the third quarter.
When we exclude the positive impact from depreciations, the comparable adjusted EBIT in consumer side was EUR 6.9 million compared to EUR 5 million in previous year. The performance was driven by the turnaround actions and an additional VAT refund of approximately EUR 2 million. Let's then also take a look at the financials for quarter three in more detail. The profit for the period for both continuing and discontinuing operations totaled at EUR 14.6 million compared to EUR 6.8 million a year ago. Similar development can be seen from the EPS as earning per share is increased from EUR 0.08 in quarter three compared to EUR 0.04 a year ago.
The cash flow has been strong in 2022, with EUR 41.8 million in cash flow from operating activities year to date, when including both continuing and discontinued operations. The quarterly fluctuations in cash flow can be significant in our industry, and you can also see that in the graph here on the left-hand side of the slide. The net debt declined and was EUR 36 million at the end of quarter three. For 2022, these figures includes only continuing operations, including the discontinued operations, the net debt at the end of quarter three was EUR 69 million. It's also down year-over-year. The decline in net debt was driven by the improved cash flow and result compared to the previous year.
It's also good to note here that in the end of the comparison period, the consumer lease liabilities were included in the net debt, and that is also, of course, affecting this one. On the right-hand side, you can see the elements of our net debt. Again, the 2022 numbers includes only the continuing operations, where the 2021 figures include also the discontinued operations. The improved financial result that we have and a strong cash flow has also improved equity ratio and the gearing compared to previous years. In gearing, the 2022 number includes only continuing operations. If we would include the discontinued operations, the quarter three gearing is 30% and showing a good improvement year-over-year.
During this beginning of October, the third of October in fact, we issued a new outlook for 2022 after finalizing the combination of Oriola, Kronans Apotek and Apoteksgruppen as Apoteksgruppen into a new jointly owned company. The new guidance is that we will, the Adjusted EBIT for the continuing operations is estimated to increase from the 2021 level. The new outlook is based on the continuing operations that we have. This is the third of October guidance. During this presentation, we have, as we have done during the whole year, mentioned the turnaround several times during this presentation. Let's go through now the key areas of the turnaround and our key focuses in the coming months.
We'll also, after this one, say a few words about how the finalization of the combining Kronans Apotek and Apoteksgruppen will impact our financials in quarter four. Here is then a recap of our short-term action plan and what we have achieved. Our turnaround short-term action plan consists of four key priority areas. It's the cost savings, it's the efficiency, net working capital management, excellent customer relationship management, and the commercial excellence. When we look at the cost savings priority, we have focused on three main areas. First, we have announced a new operating model. We have implemented all the initiatives related to our EUR 7 million cost savings targets in 2022, in both the continuing and the discontinuing operations. To streamline our operations further, we have divested our pharmacy staffing business in Finland as of first of April this year.
Secondly, we are focusing on reducing our operating costs. High focus has been in our distribution center, especially in Enköping. The third area is cost control. We have and we will continue to implement strict cost control, which is even more important now when we have the all-time high inflation figures in the total environment around us. Furthermore, we have ongoing improvement activities in network and capital management to enhance end-to-end sales and operations planning and supply chain planning. Also, we're crystallizing and optimizing our assortment portfolio. These actions are leading especially to a better warehouse management. For us, excellent customer relationship management and commercial excellence means improvements related to commercial management. During the third quarter, we have paid extra attention to these areas and gained good results. These activities are very important to mitigate the inflation impacts that we see around us.
This short-term action plan is our key priorities, and we know what to do and where to focus, and also, not only I know it, I will say that the whole organization knows about this. If we look at how the financial finalization of the combination of Kronans Apotek and Apoteksgruppen will impact our financials in quarter four. This is a little bit like how we estimate it to be. There will be a one-time negative impact on the transaction amounting to approximately EUR 30 million in quarter four this year. The non-current assets are not depreciated while they are classified as held for sale. This had a positive impact of EUR 16.5 million on the EBIT of discontinued operations in quarter one to quarter three this year.
That's partly offsetting now the negative impacts to be recorded in quarter four. From quarter four onwards, the new company will be reported as an associated company under the equity method above the EBIT line. For the parent company, there will be a negative impact of approximately EUR 100 million of net profit as a result of loan receivables that are not transferred to a new company, decreasing the parent company distributable funds by an equal amount. That we will then see during quarter four. To wrap up now this presentation before we go to questions. The third quarter, there are five important takeaways that I would like you to remember. First, I'm really happy and proud about the continuing services business, which was able to achieve a solid result in the current inflationary environment.
For continuing operations, our invoicing increased 4.1% on constant currency basis and our adjusted EBIT improved, reaching EUR 6.6 million, and that is a +23% compared to the previous period. Second, we are currently witnessing all-time high inflation, and that gives uncertainty for the coming quarters. In quarter three, our own efficiency and cost savings continued to mitigate inflationary cost pressure. Inflation is mainly affecting our fuel and energy prices, but also labor costs in the long run. Third, our near-term focus continued to be on the rigorous implementation of our turnaround initiatives and transformation. All the actions related to our EUR 7 million cost savings target have been implemented in 2022 in both continuing and discontinued operations. We have also progressed further in improving our efficiency, the portfolio management, and the product pricing.
Fourth, we announced a new operating model to further improve our operational, commercial, and supply chain excellence. This will help us to create synergies and to ensure seamless works across the markets. Our local presence is a strength, and by combining our knowledge and expertise, we will be even more agile and efficient. Our aim is to capture the full value of our business by optimizing our operating model and simplifying our structure. Last but not least, we have finalized on the combination of Kronans Apotek and Apoteksgruppen pharmacy businesses Sweden into a new jointly owned company. This transaction, which has required plenty of preparations from our organization, supports us on a journey towards a pharmaceutical infrastructure and healthcare distribution company.
I would also now like to take the opportunity to thank all our employees for their commitment and also, in fact, the customers and the partners that we have for really good cooperation in this challenging environment that we can see around us in the inflationary world that we are living in at this point. Before we go to questions, it's like this also, we announced, I think it was yesterday, that we will have an investor day on the thirtieth of November here in Helsinki, and I would like to invite all of you now to that event. You can join in person or via the web.
This is also a great opportunity to both meet you in person, and also hear more about us and what we are heading towards as a company in the near-term future. I would like to thank you for the attention, and let's see now if we have got some questions.
Yes. Let's start with questions. We have one here. You are losing market share in Swedish pharmacy business. What's the reason for that?
One of the reasons for that is that we were not comparable apples-to-apples in that area, because we have during the year also closed pharmacies. That's the main reason. Also if we look at like the Swedish krona, it's not the same level as we see now in euro because we are quite affected about the euro rate. There was in the presentation, I don't remember the figure now, but I think it was +0.9% or something like that, if we look at the Swedish krona growth.
It looks like we don't have any additional questions. It's a busy day on the market.
It's a busy day on the market. If you have more questions coming, then you know where to reach us.
Very good.
Yeah.
As there are no more, we can probably conclude the webcast. Just to remind you still about our fourth quarter interim report or the financial statement for full year 2022 will be out on February 16. With that, I want to thank you for your attention and wish you a good day. Goodbye.
Thank you.