Good afternoon, everyone, and Welcome to Siili's Result Info for 2024. My name is Tomi, and I'm the CEO of Siili. I have here today with me our CFO, Aleksi, and he will tell you about the numbers a bit later in this session. Today, we will go through key highlights of 2024, and of course, the numbers as well, and look a bit at how the 2025 for Siili is looking. Before I jump to the 2024 highlights, a brief summary of Siili, so who we are, what we do, and what we do in case we are not necessarily familiar to all of you in the audience. Our key messages for you today. First, we have a solid foundation and 20 years of track record of growth to build on.
Second, we renewed our strategy last year and focused on data and AI, so we have a very sharp strategy leveraging our core strengths and history to drive the transformation for us and for the market. Third, we have clear initiatives to enhance our operational efficiency and, as a consequence, the shareholder value as well. Siili is an impact-driven and AI-powered partner for creating competitive advantage. Our services cover a whole value chain from exploration, design, data, and AI, obviously the development, test automation, and maintenance as well. Our key client sectors are services, industry, public sector, finance, and our key markets: Finland, U.K., and Germany. We have three specialized Siili family companies, so subsidiaries, and each of them is focusing on what they can be best at. Supercharts is focusing on innovation, so they are an innovation partner for our clients.
Siili Auto is focusing purely on the HMIs of cars, and Vala is focusing on quality assurance services. We have a strong client base and proactive competence development, and those are the very key success factors of our growth and success. Almost 90% of our revenue last year came from clients who have been with us for over two years, and out of our revenue, 75% came from clients who have been with us more than five years now. Satisfied customers with stable client relationships. On the right side of the slide, that describes our competence pool. On the competence side, the majority of our services is delivered by our own consultants, and this approach allows us to maintain the quality and consistency of the services. A smaller portion of our capacity is allocated to subcontractors, and that is to allow flexibility and fast scalability when needed.
We renewed our strategy last year, and also we renewed our slogan, and now our slogan is "Make AI Real," and that captures the essence of our strategy in three words, and also describes the transformation from IT to AI. Our previous slogan was "Make IT Real." We are here to deliver tangible impact-driven value to our clients. At Siili, we aim to be the preferred AI partner for our clients to guide them through their own AI journey. For ourselves, that means that we aim to become the AI transformation leader in our own fields of expertise, and by making the AI a very practical and impactful reality for our clients.
Our strategy in one slide, we have, first of all, three strategic priorities: the community of top talent that was there already earlier, and the two blue boxes are the new ones, I mean, the ones that we added last year. The community of top talent, there the aim is to become the best AI-driven community for humans. The two blue boxes, first, the significant growth in data and AI business, there the driver for us is, of course, growth, and the second, the pioneer in AI-powered digital development, and there the driver for us is the productivity improvement and leading the development in the AI-powered development. We've always been a pioneer in leading the ways of developing software, and thus this is just a natural step, a next step for us.
A few case examples just to give you a bit of flavor that what do we actually do for our clients. All these are real-life customer case examples to give you a bit of flavor what we are currently working on, and if I highlight two very typical case types at the moment. First, the future of our organization, the age of AI, in these kind of cases, what the client is after is that the advancement like GenAI and AI agents are rapidly transforming business operations, driving efficiency and unlocking new opportunities, and there we help companies across different industries to navigate them through this AI shift and, of course, identify the emerging possibilities for our clients.
Second typical case example nowadays is the R&D, efficiency of R&D, so many of our clients focus on optimizing their R&D operations, so the industry clients, for instance, they have big R&D operations, and there they are after from leveraging the critical data sources to improving customer insight by utilization and streamlining the software development processes and, of course, with AI, and we are very experts on that matter. Moving on, the highlights of 2024. Last year, if I describe that in one sentence, last year was an AI revolution, and that was, in my opinion, the biggest and fastest change I have seen in my career for almost 30 years, and not just in our industry, but broadly, of course, as well.
This massive impact in the market led us to fully commit to AI and strive for a leading position in the AI field, in the field of expertise that we are specialized in. We are significantly aiming to expand our data and AI business and advancing the AI-assisted software development. The other theme of last year in addition to the AI revolution was that the market continued to be slow in practically all the market areas where we operate. That was, of course, the, I mean, the AI revolution was a very positive change for us, and then the slowness of the macro market obviously slowed us down. A few highlights from last year, first on the customer front, we opened a significant new automotive industry client in Germany. We cannot disclose the name, but a major automotive client in Germany.
Also, Helsinki University Hospital chose us to develop their e-health services. They are a big organization itself, so a major client for us. Even more significant for us is that it was the opening of the health segment for us. That was a new segment for us as a segment. Last year, we launched our new AI-centered strategy. That was, of course, a big thing for us as a team. Later, or later part of the year, Integrations Group, so we acquired Integrations Group, and they joined the Siili family to strengthen our integration competencies. As the expansion of AI will significantly increase the need for integrations, and that is why obviously we acquired the Integrations Group.
Practically and basically, the more complex application architecture will always lead to more integrations, and the easier the software development is, then most likely the application architectures will become more and more complex, and that pretty much automatically leads to the need for more integrations. Last but not least, we were chosen among the top 10 most attractive workplaces in Finland among the young professionals, and we are very proud of it. Also individually, I mean, personally, I'm very proud of particularly that because I felt that that was a big thing for us as a team. The numbers last year, we made EUR 112 million revenue, EBITDA roughly 5% of that, and the international share of revenue continued to grow, so share of international revenue has increased steadily for quite a long time now for us.
In quarter four, it was already more than 30%, so the first time we broke the 30% mark in international revenue on the, sorry, fourth quarter. That has been a good business for us already a long, long, long time. Quarter four was, let's say, clearly better than the average numbers of last year, and that is a signal to me that our new AI strategy is starting to pay off. Of course, it's a big thing for us and for the market, and it obviously takes more than one or two or three quarters to get it up and running, but now we start already to see some signs that it will pay off. We are determined to focus on growth pockets in the market and continue the efficiency actions.
Our response to the slow macro market in Finland and particularly in the public sector is to focus on the growth pockets in the market and, of course, continue the efficiency actions. I would just remind that, yes, it's a slow market cycle, but it's a market cycle thing, and the digital transformation obviously is that goes beyond market cycles. The digital transformation as such is here to stay, and that, of course, fuels the long-term growth despite the short-term market cycles. That is why we are confident that we are able to deliver long-term value for our stakeholders. Earlier today, we unfortunately had to announce that we have started or will start change negotiations in Finland, and our AI strategy is our response to the disruptive impact of AI on the market.
The reason for this change negotiation is that we are now refining our expertise to better align with both the last year announced strategy and, of course, the evolving market demand. At the same time, we are focusing on the growth and strategically chosen areas while strengthening our competitiveness and profitability, of course. Our estimation for the annual cost impact or cost saving impact is roughly EUR 2.7 million of these change negotiations. Just to give you a bit of flavor of what we are doing in a concrete matter, we have a very concrete action plan to improve our profitability, and we are executing that plan very systematically. Not going to go through all the items here today, but my point is that we have a clear plan, and we are executing it step by step.
Now I will hand over to Aleksi, and Aleksi will go through the numbers of last year in more detail.
Thank you, Tomi. In 2024, Siili's revenue declined from the previous year, and actually this was the first time in the company's history that on a year-on-year basis the revenue declined. The year was still characterized by tougher market conditions, and this has led us to focus more on our efficiency in order to secure and develop our profitability in the future. Let's have a quick look to last year's key financials. The picture on top is showing Siili's revenue development split between first half, second half since 2016 until the end of last year. During the second half of 2024, our revenue was EUR 52.7 million and respectively -8.2% change compared to the second half of 2023.
The main driver in the top line change was our lower capacity compared to the previous year. The picture below is showing our quarterly revenue since quarter one 2021 until quarter four last year. On quarter four, the revenue drop was roughly -6% from quarter four 2023. However, we saw improvement after lower quarter three and also some positive signals, especially on the international side towards the end of the quarter. In general, last year was still marked by tougher market conditions for Siili. Our international revenue on the second half developed in line with the previous year. This is actually a satisfying outcome given the underlying circumstances. International revenue share continued the growth, and on a full-year basis, we reached almost 30% share from the group revenue, which is actually our all-time high level. We've had consistent growth in the international revenue share since 2016.
Looking at the profitability, in the profitability, the second half of last year was still challenging. Our adjusted EBITDA margin declined by minus 2.5 percentage points from the second half of 2023, and this was, of course, driven by the lower revenue. In total, the second half adjusted EBITDA was EUR 2.1 million. During the last quarter, we saw improvement from quarter three, low levels, and also in the profitability, the end of the quarter was stronger. In total, quarter four adjusted EBITDA margin was almost 5% from revenue. Looking ahead, we're determined and committed to continue the strong efforts to improve our profitability towards our long-term financial target. Our capacity at the year-end was in total over 1,000 employees and subcontractors.
The level remained in line with the end of quarter three last year, but obviously there was a decline on a year-on-year basis due to a slower hiring pace over the last year. Going forward, our focus remains in improving our operational efficiency while maintaining recruitment activity in our core areas like data and AI competence. Looking at our financial position, despite the profitability decline, we managed to improve our financial position during last year. At the year-end, we had a low net debt level, and our equity ratio improved to almost 50%. Thanks to our solid balance sheet, the board is proposing EUR 0.18 dividend per share from last year, which is in line with our dividend policy. Our strong financial position is a good base to develop Siili further. Now back to Tomi and our future outlook.
Thank you, Aleksi. Looking a bit at how 2025 for Siili looks like. That's very easy and simple to summarize. In 2025, we have two priorities: to scale up the AI and improve our profitability. We have three strategy streams to scale up the AI, and we have clear objectives and KPIs for each of the three streams. On the profitability side, as already explained, we have a concrete plan and actions to improve our operational efficiency, and that's good. On those two things, we are focusing this year. The guidance. We, as a public company, give the guidance for our expectations regarding the coming year, and we gave the guidance to the market earlier this morning.
Our guidance regarding 2025 is that we expect the revenue to be between EUR 108 million and EUR 130 million and the adjusted EBITDA to be between EUR 4.7 million and EUR 7.7 million. This guidance, we have two basic assumptions, I mean external assumptions regarding the external conditions. First, we assume that the macro demand environment remains unchanged compared to 2024, so we are not expecting that the market will pick up this year. Yes, it may obviously well do that, but our guidance is not based on the assumption that the market will improve this year. The other assumption is that the AI revolution obviously will continue. No surprises there. That is simply the guidance with a few assumptions. Long-term financial targets, we have not changed those. Those are as they were earlier.
To summarize the whole session, first of all, we have a solid foundation and track record, 20 years of track record to build on. Last year, we renewed our strategy focusing on data and AI, and this year, the theme for this year is to focus on the execution of that. Of course, in practice, it means scaling up the AI, and the second priority for this year is improving the profitability. Regarding that, we have clear initiatives to enhance our operational efficiency and sell the value as a consequence. That was all we had, and now Q&A. If you have any questions, we are more than happy to answer those.
Yes, there is already one question. Just a reminder, you can—sorry,
I need to check. Yes, you can—reading glasses.
Yes y ou can place the questions from the Q&A button from Teams, and there is one question concerning the pricing.
Maybe—yes, no, I can—okay, last part. I could not see the question. Technical improvement. Actually, yes, I can actually see the question.
Are you still seeing pressure in the early pricing? The new vendors—is the difference in the pricing momentum between public and private market currently?
Yes, public market. In the public sector, there is really a pressure on prices, so no changes there. Like I said, regarding this year, we are not expecting any changes on that. I mean, the pressure is not a new thing that was there the whole last year, but we are not expecting any changes on that.
Also, what was there already last year was the—let's say that the pricing in the private sector and the pricing in the public sector, that there is a difference.
All right, we can see another question as well.
Yeah, if I read the question, maybe it's easier for everyone. How should we interpret the announced change negotiation? Is it just Siili shaping its expertise mix, or do you need to scale down capacity due to continued soft market momentum? Yes, fair question. I would say that definitely the priority number one is that we are shaping our expertise mix because of the AI disruption on the market. Of course, partly it's due to the soft situation on the market, and particularly referring now to the public sector.
We do not expect that the public sector demand will get or will increase on where we are at the moment. Right, next one. Can you elaborate on the different growth drivers you see currently? Yeah, no, definitely. I start to repeat myself, but definitely the data and AI is, of course, a growing market segment, and that's, let's say, the growth driver number one for us. As we discussed in some other contexts already, and as we said on the capital markets, at that time we communicated that it's roughly—I mean, the data and AI is roughly 10% of our consultant or amount of consultants. Therefore, although it's growing fast, still the impact on the overall numbers is still not that significant. I emphasize that it's clearly a growing segment and very much in the focus of what we do.
The other growth drivers, as I said many times, the public sector is clearly not a growth driver at the moment. What will happen this year? I mean, whatever news you open, it's today Trump says something, yesterday he said something else, and tomorrow I'm not going to try to guess what he will do tomorrow. Let's say a lot of uncertainties on the market. On the other hand, a lot of kind of things ongoing that might change the market fast to very positive kind of drivers. Again, very difficult to estimate their impact and when and what and all that kind of stuff. Once again, our focus is now on the data and AI, and that's clearly the growth driver number one for us.
Yes, then question about the guidance range expectation.
Yeah, so the guidance range expectation, what needs to happen to reach the higher side of the guidance range? Yeah, now fair question again. If there is no change in the market conditions, then it's fair to expect that we will not reach the, let's say, the top quarter of the guidance. Like I said, that may well change during the year. What we learned from last year, that last year our expectation was, I mean, at this time of last year, that the latter part of the year would be a positive change in the market. That didn't happen. Now we have been clearly more cautious regarding the expectations. Possibly one reason for the change negotiations we announced today is that we are prepared if the market wouldn't get any better.
Yes, then question about the development of the new management system or approach. How has that progressed since the CMD? And when should we expect cost efficiency improvements to be visible from here?
Yeah, no, it's of course a long-term thing. Also, it's not kind of something that we do out of the context. There are so many variables. I mean, the pricing, the market situation in general, the politics, this and that, all that impacts us. We have quite a few external factors impacting us. Therefore, I guess it's pretty difficult to kind of see the impact of the actions that we do internally. What we are aiming to do is make sure that our efficiency is on a good level. Whenever the market will pick up, of course we will see the gains of that efficiency work.
We have a systematic approach, and the figures will follow.
Yeah, sooner or later the figures will follow. There are so many factors that are not in our control that will impact that when you will see it in the numbers. That is why we are a bit hesitant to give you any estimations on that.
Question about our international business. Do you see faster recovery outside Finland in 2025, so this year? There was some positive development.
Yes. Yeah, no, I would say that it's likely. Already now the business outside Finland has performed better than the business in Finland. No reason to expect that that would change. It is likely that we will see improvement in the business outside Finland. I would say likely that we will see that faster than changes in the business in Finland.
However, somehow this volatile, you never know what's going to happen, thing might occur in the international side as well. Yes. All right. I don't see currently any more questions. Maybe I'll check from our studio personnel. Studio audience. No more questions. I guess that's it. All right.
Thank you for participating this session, and we will get back to you later after the first quarter. Thank you.