Very good morning. Greetings from the wintry Helsinki, and welcome to join the online presentation, webcast presentation of Relais Group Financial Statements Review 2023. My name is Arni Ekholm. I'm the CEO of the company, and I have the pleasure to present the 2023 results together with our CFO, Mr. Thomas Ekström.
Good morning.
So together we will take you through the presentation. As per normal, you have the chance to make questions by pressing the Ask a Question button on your screen. We really hope that you are active and present a lot of questions that we will entertain at the end of the presentation. The presentation will take roughly 20 minutes-25 minutes, and after that, then we will answer the questions for you. Looking at the contents, Relais in brief, I think there might be people who do not know us yet. Some of the people have heard these presentations before, so there's a certain amount of repetition. I think it's very important to explain what we do and what our strategy is. Then I will explain the events during quarter four and the full-year 2023, it's a kind of business review.
Thomas will make a deep dive into the numbers and walk you through the financials. Then at the end, a summary of what Relais is as an investment from an investor point of view. As I said, at the very end, questions and answers. Relais in brief, how do we position ourselves? How do we see ourselves? What is Relais Group about? We are vehicle aftermarket specialists operating in the Nordic region. So we are focusing solely on the vehicle aftermarket. We are one of the biggest and most profitable growth platforms in this sector in Northern Europe. Why are we focused on the vehicle aftermarket? It's because we see the best value creation potential in that market, as opposed to other parts of the value chain in the vehicle business. I will explain that slightly later. Aftermarket business is also less cyclical.
It's not so sensitive to the trends in the economic environment and more defensive than many other markets. It grows steadily. The number of vehicles is steadily growing in our markets. An interesting thing is also a large part of our business is coming from commercial vehicles. That is also important to understand because other types of technical trends are imminent in the commercial vehicle part than in the passenger vehicle part of the business. How do we create shareholder value? We aim to do it by delivering strong earnings growth with a very simple strategy based on three reinforcing themes: growth by acquisitions, organic growth, and operational excellence, which I will explain more in detail later. What is the vehicle aftermarket? We talk about vehicle lifecycle. It's when the vehicle is produced and to the end of life when it's demolished and then recycled.
There are different parts in the value chain, and we have focused on the parts of the lifecycle that start when the vehicle is imported in the country, whether it's equipped with the lighting or power management, whether it's repaired and maintained and needing spare parts. And also we have, as a newest business area, workshop equipment business. So we are helping the workshops also to develop their business. So the orange-colored section in this lifecycle is our target market for acquisitions and also where we operate with our own companies. We estimate the size of the market to be roughly EUR 20 billion. It's a question of definition. How do you define the aftermarket? Because there are adjacent businesses and product groups that may fall under the aftermarket or not, but still it's a huge business in the Nordic and Baltic countries.
We also estimate that there are about 19 million vehicles in this geographical area coming all the way from two-wheeled vehicles to materials handling, excavators, lorries, trucks, off-road vehicles, and so forth. Every vehicle for us is a revenue platform. Either you can sell equipment to make the vehicle work better, or then you can repair the vehicle and prolong the lifecycle and the life of the vehicle, which is also, from a sustainability point of view, a very good deed. Looking at the Relais Group companies, we are, let's say, operating two types of businesses: technical wholesale and products, where we have the magnitude or, let's say, majority of our companies fall under that business area. We have the commercial vehicle repair and maintenance business area.
Looking at the companies we have under the technical wholesale and products, you find different companies that are focused on, let's say, commercial vehicle spare parts like Huzells and TD Tunga Delar and partly Startax. You have lighting and power management companies like Strands, Awimex, SEC, SEC in Denmark. And you have online business Lumise. And then you have the workshop equipment business AutoMateriell and Nordic Lift in Norway. ABR in Sweden is a very known and established spare parts wholesaler, focusing mostly on passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. So also here on the technical wholesale and products, you see a big focus on commercial vehicles and product business. We have companies selling products with their own brands like Strands and partly Startax, which is very important to understand that the lighting business within this business area, we have our own private label brands.
And commercial vehicle repair and maintenance, we are one of the biggest, if not the leading independent repair and maintenance chain in Finland and Sweden, having almost 30 workshops in two countries with Raskone and STS and then also Skeppsbrons. And the latest acquisition was in Jyväskylän Truck Center, Jyväskylän Truck Center in the middle of Finland. It's an example of an add-on acquisition, which I will explain later. Then if we think of how the business is divided, how our business is divided from a geographical point of view, you will see that the Scandinavian part, its importance has gone up quite much during the last years. Even from 2022- 2023, the weight of the Scandinavian markets has gone up from 52%- 55%. And at the same time, the Swedish krona has weakened.
So actually, with constant exchange rates, the weight of the Scandinavian market would be even higher than the 55%. And then the remaining part, 45%, is Finland and Baltics. So starting from a purely Finnish operation over 10 years ago, this has become much more Scandinavian or a true Nordic company. Then sales by business area, the business areas I showed on the map: technical wholesale and products. Technical wholesale is about two-thirds, and the repair and maintenance business is about one-third. This is not a huge change. We made some acquisitions on the wholesale and product business, which then increased the relative share of that business. But two-thirds, one-third, that's easy to remember. Then finally, on this chart, sales by product group. And also pay attention that the black part here, repair and maintenance, it's virtually the same as in the previous page.
We do not split the repair and maintenance business into work and parts. So we consider it as a product group in this comparison. So the blue one is, let's say, the original core of the company, the spare parts business, which is roughly 30%. The weight of the lighting business relatively has gone down from 2024- 2021 because the equipment part, where the acquired Norwegian business falls under, has relatively gone up from 13%- 17%. So that kind of has changed a little bit. It doesn't imply that the lighting sales would be on a downturn. It's more that the relative share of the lighting is smaller. I think this is, in a way, good for everybody to understand where the sales is coming from. Then going to the Business Review 2023, year 2023, highest net sales and EBITDA in the history of Relais Group.
In this context, I want to thank our teams. Again, I mean, there was some tailwind and there were also some, how do you say, headwind in the market. And it's, in a way, split into two. The Scandinavian markets had a very positive trend from, let's say, from a market and demand point of view, whilst the Finnish and Baltic markets were more soft, especially on the wholesale part. And I will come back to that. But I want to thank our teams. You did a tremendous job both in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway. I really want to congratulate you for this result. I also want to thank our customers and business partners, shareholders, and owners for supporting us. So this kind of marks a historical moment in our growth path. Then in numbers, which then Thomas will explain more in detail.
But in the big picture, the full-year, we reached EUR 284 million. It's a growth of 9%. And the EBITDA was 28.5%, which is a growth of 24% versus last year. Then looking at quarter four, the net sales grew with 8%. And the EBITDA for that quarter grew with 25% to EUR 7.8 million. And then again, Thomas will explain later more in detail. Looking at 2023 in a nutshell, looking at positives and negatives. So I tried to kind of give you a picture from a helicopter perspective of what it was that happened last year and how do we see the development last year. As I just stated, the net sales grew healthy with 9%, EBITDA also very nicely 24%. But again, it was a kind of a binary development where Scandinavia was positive for the whole year. I think the market conditions were stronger and better.
Also, the price increases that we managed to carry out contributed to stable gross profit levels. So even if the Swedish krona was weaker, which affected our purchase prices from the suppliers, we managed to then again defend our gross profits by adjusting our pricing. All in all, in Finland and in Sweden, the repair and maintenance business performed extremely well. We are really happy of that business area. And we have gained market share from the, let's say, automotive importers-controlled workshop chains. So the independent players as us have gained market share. And we have also strongly increased the profitability of those acquired businesses. We only acquired this business area, let's say, roughly two years ago. And already we have really, really increased the profitability of that business. So it's a... Also here, I want to congratulate the teams in those businesses for these results.
Despite the sluggish corporate acquisition market, we managed to acquire four companies, two in Norway, and one in Finland, and then later also another one in Finland, an asset deal. Looking then at the negatives, as I stated in the beginning, the Finnish market was soft, mostly coming from the macroeconomic factors, partly also the tough competition, and the mild winter. Here I want to stop for a while to explain the winter. Why is winter... Why does it play a role for us? It is the type of products we sell in Finland, spare parts, where we also count the starter batteries, generators, alternators, heaters, boosters, battery boosters. If it's -5 degrees and there's snow on the ground, it doesn't move the needle. But when there's -20 for 2 weeks, then it really, really blows the sales, really blows up the sales.
Looking at the quarter four, yes, the winter came fairly early. But as I said, it's not enough with a few minus degrees. Even if it was like wintry conditions looking from the outside, it's not enough. So if you compare then a little bit jumping to this year, in January, if you had and we had about two to three weeks of -20 , so that really affects the market hugely positively. And our business is quite sensitive to electrical spare parts, which are related to the development in the weather. So I hope this kind of clarifies the weather, the weight of the weather in our business. So it really needs to be cold. And in the summer also, if it's really warm, that has a similar effect on the sales of batteries and also air conditioning compressors.
So a really cold winter with many, many days or weeks or really cold weather has a positive effect. But a normal winter, even if it comes early, does not really have that big effect. So this is important to really understand. Then the online business-to-consumer part that we have, we have in our group, suffered because of very low consumer demand almost all year long. The products that we sell through that channel are, to a very high extent, discretionary products. I mean, people do not necessarily need a lighting product for their car if they can or if they have to spend the money to something else, like paying the electrical bill. Not all of our business in lighting at all is coming from discretionary products. More of our lighting business actually comes from business-to-business, which is more steady across the year.
Then we had some operating cost challenges during H1. And then we have changed the operating model and the organization. And now the cost base is starting to be where it should be to match the lower demand in the Finnish marketplace. Looking at the rearview mirror and the acquisition cases, as I just explained, we managed to acquire four companies or businesses. But we didn't manage to buy really big kind of game-changer companies. And last year was a bit special. I think there were a few cases, structured deals, where a lot of private equities were competing with us and paying more than we were ready to pay because they have a different type of risk profile.
On the other hand, a lot of kind of what I call the diamond companies did not want to even discuss selling last year because their valuation expectations were much higher than what the market actually would have indicated. Now I feel that the situation has changed a little bit. Some of these cases are actually coming back who were put on hold last year. So it was a kind of mixed message. We would have hoped to make bigger acquisitions and then still hope, of course, to and aim to make them this year. The exchange rate issue that I mentioned, the krona still weakened during last year. And if we would have had the same exchange rate that we had in 2022, the EBITDA would have been EUR 1.5 million higher than reported. Quarter four, more comments about quarter four in detail.
It was also the fourth consecutive quarter with a double-digit EBITDA growth. Still, even if the market was sluggish, we managed to grow the EBITDA during the last quarter. Basically, the same picture as I explained for the full-year. Scandinavia growing very nicely and strong market demand. Commercial vehicle and repair maintenance market demand remains solid. That market, though you have to remember that quarter four in 2022 was really a strong quarter for this type of business. So there was not a similar improvement anymore than we had in quarter four or 2022. But it was still very stable. Negatives, the wholesale market continued to be soft. I think the statistics show about flat market for quarter four in Finland and a minus on the equipment business, which is then lighting business. This is very crucial for the lighting business. How, let's say, the peak season works.
As I said, it's not a huge part of our business. But still, it's very decisive for the success in quarter four whether the consumer-driven market is hot or not, so to speak. And the kind of Black Friday or Black Week or Cyber Monday or call it what you want. If you miss that and if the customers don't buy, then it really makes a negative effect on your results. And that's what we saw this year. The consumers didn't buy as much as they had done before. Let's say purchase power was down and maybe the consumer confidence was also down and people were spending on other things. This is generally seen in Finland in many other discretionary product groups during quarter four.
But all in all, I still think it was a good quarter four despite of these demand, let's say, challenges in the Finnish demand situation and market situation. And then just a small detail regarding the krona, it still had an effect also on the quarter four, about EUR 200,000 on the EBITDA. So basically the same picture as in the full-year, but then accentuated by the weight of the lighting business, consumer business in this quarter. Operational excellence, that's one part of our strategy, is to make the companies work more efficiently. And we had a couple of big themes that we focused on and we still continue to focus on is the pricing policy. So we have had in our major companies, we have gone through our pricing processes and, let's say, installed and implemented new strategies and policies.
It's not only about how we price towards the customers. It's also to what price do you buy from your suppliers. It's sometimes even more important to have a full control on the purchase prices that you are already kind of following also the market and what's going on there. So that has a huge impact on the gross profit. So we managed to defend our gross profits and even improve it in some cases. Then when it comes to the very important commercial vehicle workshop chains, the repair and maintenance chains, as I said, we have managed to increase the profitability of both or all of our repair and maintenance companies. There are no... Let's say it's no rocket science. The devil is in the details of how effectively do you run these companies?
What is the utilization rate of how many hours are the mechanics able to invoice for the work they are at the workshop and stuff like that? It's more like what you measure is what you get. And also by investing in our personnel. Raskone made a huge, let's say, change in their... Even in their branding and image and also the way the team spirit is kind of coming through. I'm really impressed by the work that's been done there. And also STS has done a lot of work on the quality enhancement and the quality processes and sustainability. So there's a lot going on there, which actually have a big effect then on retaining the personnel, which is important for us for this machine to work, to keep the mechanics in our business. Then a few words about strategy and financial target before I let Thomas loose.
Just recapping our financial target, as communicated before, EUR 50 million EBITDA, pro forma comparable EBITDA, including the latest 12 months comparable EBITDA of acquired businesses. So it's kind of a run rate target by end of 2025. How are we planning to get there? This is the strategy chart I have shown you before. The three enforcing themes: growth by acquisitions, operational excellence, and organic growth. Our value creation model then based on the strategy, I have also shown this before, coming from investing right and then building the businesses into great businesses and then accelerating the growth. Maybe I just pick up a few points from here that we are really focusing on finding the best companies because we do not, let's say, have the idea of buying distressed companies and then to build them. I mean, this is not a kind of a...
Let's find a company in really bad shape and then let's shape it up. It's more like find a good company with good management, stable profitability, and then build that business even better. Then to accelerate growth by what we call the competence compounding. So it's not only compounding and allocating capital. It's also the competence we have as aftermarket specialists. We learn from each other and we have also evidence of knowledge sharing and best practices. It really works. It's not just empty words. Then just looking at the growth path of the company now with the recent results 284 and 29, actually with comparable exchange rates, you can easily add about EUR 2 million on the EBITDA. So you can see the curve from, let's say, if you even take 10 years back in time, the company is almost 10 times bigger than it was then.
The profit is over 5x more than it was then. Then finally, before I let Thomas loose, the outlook for 2024. Not much has changed from what I said the last time. It is still the macroeconomic market demand factors that have the biggest effect on how we look at 2024. I think the economies in Europe and globally are not yet done with the inflationary development. The interest rates are still on the level more or less that they were last year, which has increased the financing cost for businesses. And also, let's say, it will affect and has affected the purchase price, purchasing power of the households. There are also signs of increasing unemployment and layoffs, not to mention the latest news about the strikes in Finland. But on the other hand, the vehicle market, as I explained, is fairly defensive by nature.
Often in tougher times, the independent aftermarket takes market shares because the fleets are more keen to find, let's say, more competitively priced service providers than the vehicle manufacturers' own chains. That has been historically the trend. Our inventory situation is good. Resource situation is good. We can meet the customer demands with our products and services. So all in all, we feel that we are well positioned to continue on our growth path in a sustainable and profitable way also during 2024. And now over to Thomas.
Thank you, Arni. Yes, I will continue from where Arni started. Let's have a kind of quick look again on the net sales and the profitability. It was really a good year of strong and profitable growth. You can see that the sales increased by 8% and even the EBITDA was +25%.
There, I could perhaps elaborate a bit more that the comparable increase was about the same level in Q4 as last year. The biggest reason here was that the commercial vehicle repair and maintenance business has been good the whole year 2023. But also in the last quarter, the comparison period was also good. So there we didn't have such a big increase anymore in the profitability due to that. All in all, the whole year, the technical wholesale and products business in Scandinavia was good. That was also continued and even enhanced in Q4. Then on the negative side, you can see here is that, of course, as Arni said, the technical wholesale and products in Finland and the Baltics has been sluggish. So this has all impacted the development.
But all in all, you see the pattern of a really strong and profitable growth during the whole year. Then to perhaps dig a bit more deeper into the reasons behind the EBITDA, the gross profit and gross margin, you can see that we had a bit of a negative development in Q4. And the reason here was that we had a larger business mix on the technical wholesale and products, which then kind of impacted negatively on the margin picture there. But looking at the EUR gross profit, there was continued good increase both in the last quarter and the whole year. But it's important to keep in mind that the mix of the business impacts.
And also here in the last second half of the year, we also bought new businesses, AutoMateriell business, which is more of a kind of wholesale and spare parts business with a different margin picture past the commercial repair and maintenance. So it's always key that the mix also plays a role here in the whole picture of the margin and the gross profit. Operating expenses were really in check still. And the share of expenses to net sales came down both on the full-year level and also on the last quarter. So that's also a key metric in this sense. Net working capital is always in a business like ours in the kind of on the forefront. And we see that it has a bit increased now during the last quarter.
But then if you look at the net working capital against net sales, which is a key metric, that has come down. So we have still managed to keep the efficiency up in the business. And also it's key to remember that in the last quarter of 2022, there were really kind of big improvement measures there where we managed to reduce inventories a lot. And of course, that has not been the case. We have been kind of doing more kind of basic normal measures here this year. And that's why the difference perhaps is not so big or the increase here is a bit negative. And also when we bought AutoMateriell in Norway, we have been building up even the receivables, the net working capital to that business because we bought only the business and not the receivables.
So there's kind of also a bit of a negative visual impact from that. And of course, we bought the inventories also in the AutoMateriell business. So there you have the key impacting factors on the net working capital. And then these impacts also the cash flow. And the cash flow was strong, especially when you look at cash flow before net working capital on an annual level. But also it kept on a good level in Q4. And then net working capital, you see the change was very high in the last quarter of 2024. Or 2022, I'm sorry. But all in all here, a really good performance again. And cash flow or cash conversion was stable for the full-year. And in Q4 also good, but not anymore at the kind of exceptionally high one-off high level in Q4 2022. Here you see a different picture of cash flow.
You can see that also the cash flow from investing activities was a bit lower due to different M&A activities at the kind of second half of the year. Also cash flow from financing activities, we did not raise any new loans this year, which kind of impacts the cash flow from financing activities. No big change here either. The net debt picture, it's stable. And as said, we have kept kind of amortizing the loans in a normal way. We had stable cash flow, stable liquidity, and also stable available funds. Perhaps a bit here you see the cash is a bit lower due to that we have instead invested a bit in the building up net working capital in the acquired businesses in Norway. But nothing big to mention. So stable development here also and no big change in the leverage picture. Net financials, net financial expenses.
Of course, as said in the previous occasions here is that due to the increased interest rates, also the interest expenses have increased in 2023. They have about doubled from 2022 levels. But then you see that the impact of the FX changes was favorable in Q4 and also for the full-year. And this has to do with the fact that we have FX-denominated loans, external loans. But we also have internal loans or loan receivables in the parent company from subsidiaries. And that impacts the kind of the bookkeeping of these exchange rates. And now it's been a negative impact so far in the year. And now it was a positive impact in Q4. Here you can see perhaps on the low side, the equity ratio was stable. Also gearing was stable, a bit lower. So good development here.
The balance sheet has grown due to acquisitions and somewhat higher net working capital due to the reasons I explained a while ago. Then lastly, dividends to be paid for 2023. The board proposes a dividend per share of EUR 0.44. And that's an increase of EUR 0.04 against last year. And as also previously, the dividend is proposed to be paid in two equal installments in April and in November 2024. And compared to earnings per share, the earnings per share was EUR 0.76 and last year EUR 0.56. So in that sense, the proposed dividend payout is about 59% this year. And you can also see here on the screen the distributable funds of the parent company from which dividend is paid. So really kind of stable proposal here also. Yeah. Arni.
Thank you, Thomas. Thanks for going through the numbers.
Then before taking a crack at your questions, summarizing Relais as an investment. So as I said, we are a sector specialist and we aim to consolidate. We consolidate the Nordic vehicle aftermarket. And this sector specialist role gives us a competitive advantage. We know the companies, we know the business, we can develop them better. We are already now one of the leading and most profitable growth platforms in this sector in Northern Europe. We have a long track record of doing successful acquisitions and making our companies grow. And that is what we aim to do also this year and next year and any year after that. As Thomas just explained, we have a solid cash flow and profitability track record. The vehicle aftermarket, the underlying market for us is growing. It grows every year. It's defensive and it has less cyclicality than many other businesses.
And also inside our business, we have a very exciting business, our own branded lighting business, which is also growing steadily and has big potential also outside our geographical region. And then we have an efficient and lean operating model, which is then also reflected in our operating expenses. Thank you. And now over to questions and answers. And Heikki will read some of the questions we have received. I hope there are many and tough ones.
Yes, there are many questions. Let's start from the question from Ville. How do you define a larger M&A target in terms of revenue? And what does their situation look like for the year 2024?
Larger for me would be anything over, and this is very rough, over EUR 2 million in EBITDA is already larger. Between EUR 2 million-EUR 5 million, I would say, is kind of a sweet spot for us. There are quite many potential targets in the market also for this year.
Then moving on to next one, Petri Gostowski is asking, given the weakness in online sales and discretionary demand, have you taken some actions due to the weaker market? Can you give some more color on the operational change?
Yeah, sure. It is, you know, we have basically two online companies that are now operated as one. It's called Lumise. And as I said, the last year was tough. We had during the first half year two big operating costs versus the sales. So what we did was that we right-sized the organization, if you will, and put together the Swedish and Finnish operations and also now logistically under our Startax operation.
So it's kind of integrated from an operational point of view in our wholesale business, which then also acts as the logistic hub for this company. So we have seen not yet the full effect of the cost reductions, but we will see them during quarter one and quarter two. It's going to have an effect on that business. But the most decisive way to success is then to have commercially well-functioning operations for the H2 of this year. Because that's when the business is really, you make it or break it. But now the machine has been right-sized and also the processes have been effectivized for that type of business. But it's also a material cost saving.
Petri continues, given the already seen and possible new strikes in Finland, do you expect these to impact your business in some way? Or have you already seen some impact?
To answer the first, the last part of the question first, no, we have not seen any effect yet. What we predict to happen if the harbors are closed most likely will not affect us in short term. Because most of the business we run with spare parts, we are actually sourcing from Europe with on wheels, so not on containers from Asia. So this time of the year, we are not so dependent on Far East import, which is then coming to the harbors as containers. So our prediction is that the potential two-week strike will not have a material effect on our material flows or sales.
Then the last question from Petri, given the flat gross sales margin year-on-year, would you say you have been able to fully compensate the inflation through price increases? Or what other factors should one consider?
I think actually there you have to now bear in mind the business mix that Thomas was explaining. That on the wholesale and repair and maintenance, outside the recent acquisitions, the gross margins have improved in repair and maintenance. And we have kept the wholesale gross margin. But the new business that we have acquired for quarter four had a negative effect. I know it might be hard to see through that. But let's say, as Thomas explained, the relative weight of the newly acquired businesses took down the wholesale gross margin. However, having said that, it does not mean that that's the same in quarter one and quarter two. It's like always when you take over a business, there's also some friction in the integration process.
Let's say utilization ratio of the field service that we have in that business that contributed to a lower gross profit than normally. So a long answer, Petri, to your question. But yes, we have managed to, in effect, defend our gross profits.
Moving on to questions from Joni Sandvall. Given the cold start of the year, have you seen clear pickup in sales of spare parts early 2024?
Yes, of course. I can only comment on the general market and not our own performance. But the general market is, according to, let's say, the trade statistics, in January was about plus 3.0% for the spare parts and equipment. So that is the kind of what I said about the if you have minus 20% for two or three weeks, it really moves the needle. So you don't see that type of development in many businesses.
But anybody who read the news and saw the news about flat batteries and cars that you have to tow away from the streets and yards, it kind of has a big effect.
Gross margin was down on a year-on-year basis in Q4. You had a mixed change. But have you seen any changes on underlying gross margins?
Not really. As I just explained to Petri's question, this is almost purely coming from the business mix.
Then how have procurement costs developed? Has there been challenges with logistics owing to the Red Sea situation? And how do you expect logistic costs to develop in 2024?
Not in a material way. The fact more is that the freight times, delivery times, have increased with, let's say, about 10 days when they cannot go through the Red Sea. Not materially on the cost side. It's more like a time delay.
That would be relevant if that would happen suddenly in the peak season of lighting. But as again, most of our import is coming from Europe on rubber wheels. So it's only the lighting and some electrical equipment that's coming from China. We have not seen increases in freight costs. And the Swedish krona, of course, has had an effect on the purchase prices relatively in Sweden. But we have managed to mitigate that with the price increases. And also, I would like to mention that we are, as part of the operational excellence, have been more successful, I think, in negotiating with large suppliers by putting together our volumes and really negotiating with the suppliers. And also, it's a partnership. We can also help them to make a better business in this region.
Then a couple of more from Joni. You mentioned that you are well positioned to continue profitable growth in 2024. Are you expecting positive organic growth in 2024?
I think the situation in Finland continues to be challenging. Even the cold weather has helped and will probably help the first quarter market demand. But looking, as I stated in my outlook, at the macroeconomic situation, Finland is still shaky. And most likely that will put a break on the organic growth. And with that said, I do not have quite as big worries for the Scandinavian markets, which, of course, they are not neutral or immune to the macroeconomic factors either. But I'm more hopeful on the organic growth on the Scandinavian side. We push, of course, and try to sell more in Finland as well. But the environment is tougher, but is not hopeless in any way.
Good. And then the last one. How much M&A firepower do you have taken into account the current leverage level?
Yeah, I think, as Thomas showed in his chart about the financing, so we have about EUR 15 million uncommitted gunpowder still in the Senior Facility Agreement. Then it's been very clear, and as I've also said, that when we go over that and have bigger acquisitions, we have also the option of increasing the use of our share, but also to raise more equity or equity-like financing. So that's the kind of a next step in the acquisition path.
Good. That's everything from the chat.
Thank you, Heikki. And thanks for everybody for following. And I wish you all a continued nice week.
Thank you.
Thank you.