Good day, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to follow Sitowise's half-year results presentation. My name is Mari Reponen, I'm Head of Investor Relations here in Sitowise. I have here here with me our CEO, Heikki Haasmaa, and our CFO, Hanna Masala, who will shortly start the presentation. Before that, I will briefly give you some technical instructions. Here you can see our agenda for today. First, Heikki and Hanna will discuss our Q2 and half-year performance, and after that, Heikki will go through our strategy execution and how it has progressed, especially in Q2. If you wish to comment or ask questions, you can do it via chat box under the presentation, and I will go through the questions you have sent after the presentation. We kindly ask you to provide your full name when presenting questions.
Now we will continue to the actual presentation, and I will hand over the stage to Heikki and Hanna.
Thank you, Mari. Let's start with the second quarter, which is presented here in a nutshell. The market around us was very mixed between our business areas, but as a whole, we continued healthy growth during this second quarter. Our net sales increased by 9% year-on-year, and on constant currencies, the growth would have been 11%. What I'm very pleased is our organic growth. That was 5% year-on-year, including the downside from the Buildings. If we exclude the Buildings, the organic growth for the other thre business areas was double-digit, at 11%, which is actually a very good growth rate. Our order book was stable at EUR 175 million, and that we consider to be on a good level.
Our second quarter profitability declined as we expected. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 8%. We'll go through the factors behind this development in more detail shortly. Our operating profit increased year-on-year, as we had a clearly smaller amount of items affecting the comparability than last year. In second quarter, we also see strong cash flow from operations, which had a positive impact on our leverage, and I'm very pleased with these performances. We had our annual survey during the second quarter, and we could see also there the impact of the tougher market environment in its results, especially in the Buildings business area. eNPS remained, however, on a good level at 18. In second quarter, we also completed an important acquisition after the quarter, and next, Hanna will tell more about that.
Yes, thanks. Thanks, Heikki. I'll, I'll be happy to do that. Yeah, the acquisition of Infrasuunnittelu, that was announced in early May, as you might remember, the company provides expert services in environmental and civil engineering. It has 17 employees, who are now part of our Infra business area. Since the acquisition, we have started the common journey actively, we already are implementing two projects together, one being for Metsäliitto, a large forest industry client. We have received very good feedback from the clients, from the cooperation, these assignments are progressing well. What we have also done, after the acquisition and during the summer, is that we've combined our sales and bidding activities so that we are strong together for future orders.
We've been meeting clients, for example, in the mining industry together. It's been really nice to see that even if the companies, Sitowise and Infrasuunnittelu, are very big, different in size, the way of thinking and implementing projects is very similar, and we see the, the kind of similar opportunities and challenges. It's a good path, and we look forward to continuing the journey together. Heikki, you can take it from here.
Thanks. H1. It was clearly better than in, in second quarter, thanks to our strong first quarter. In, in the first half, we saw 11.5% net sales growth or 13% growth in constant currencies, and our organic growth was at the level of the comparison period, at 5%. Although our second quarter adjusted EBITDA margin was down year-on-year, the first half performance was clearly closer to the comparison period, totaling at 9.9%. We also clearly improved with the operating profit compared to last year, H1. Our operating cash flow increased both in the, in the second quarter and then overall during the first half of the year. Thanks to the improved operating profit and cash flows, both our net debt and leverage declined.
Earlier this spring, in Q1, we had our annual client survey. We were happy to see that the level stayed on the same good level as year before. I really would like to just thank our clients for their trust. One of the highlights of the quarter was naturally also the launch of our updated strategy. At the end of the presentation, we'll come back to how we are progressing. Let's go through our performance business area by business area, starting with Buildings. Buildings continues to suffer from the very difficult construction market in Finland. Its net sales declined a bit. The organic growth was also negative. The acquisitions, especially Rakennuttajakaari Oy in June 2022, contributed to the net sales. The increasing interest rates and the general real estate market development have slowed down the renovation market as well.
Good to also mention that there was one working day less during the quarter, which impacted negatively by 2% in the growth. We also continued actions to adjust our capacity through different vacation arrangements and limited temporary layoffs. The effective management of work has led to Buildings' utilization remaining on a good level, and I'm really thankful for that one. Pricing has developed well, ensuring long-term profitability, instead of entering to the toughest price competition. We also still have a good order book for Buildings, and new orders are coming in from all of the business segments. Of course, overall in the construction industry, or the weakness in the construction industry is impacting also now our business, and the outlook is weak for the coming quarters.
Good to also mention that there is one working day less, both in the third quarter and fourth quarter, which in our business model have a clear impact on revenue and EBITA. Infra business. There the picture is very different. We are clearly outperforming the market, and I'm very pleased with this performance. Infra grew 13% year-on-year, and this growth was almost entirely organic. Also in Infra, the market is mixed. There's a strong demand for energy and environmental projects related to the green transition, but also weaker demand for projects related to municipal infrastructure design and groundworks for new buildings. This, of course, has a linkage to the weak construction market overall.
There are several factors impacting Infra's great performance. I would say that ultimately, the success is based on the work done in the past years and quarters, so that we have really close client relationships and market position. We've also managed well with the pricing, then also the utilization rate improved clearly in second quarter after the temporary drop in first quarter. Order book also on a strong level. As a whole, we see that the Infra is really well-performing. There's also a stable, good outlook for the Infra going further. In the Digital Solutions, growth was really good. It was 69% compared to previous year, that's to a large extent coming from the acquisition of the Bitcomp company, which is a software-as-a-service provider in the forest sector.
Also the organic growth was strong for the Digital Solution as a whole. Market was favorable in the public segment investments. The public segment investments were on a good level, and also the renewable energy sector provides clearly new opportunities. On the other hand, the private sector investments slowed somewhat. Overall, we had a strong performance in Digi as a result of pricing successes, good utilization rate, and then also the increase of the higher margin SaaS business. Outlook is good, however, however, there are some signs of market slowing down, slowing down in the private sector. During the H2, we don't also get that kind of tailwind from the last year acquisitions, still we see that the SaaS business itself continues to grow well.
New leadership in Digi, as Anna Weck started to lead Digi business in May, has been well-received, and our strategic focus continues to be on high growth and high-margin segments, streamlining products portfolio, and further increasing the SaaS business. Our Swedish business grew also well, especially if we take into account the weakening of the Swedish krona. With a constant currency, the growth would have been 16%, which is a very good achievement. It came both from the acquisitions and also from the organic development. In Sweden, we are also facing a mixed market that is affected by inflation and rising interest rates. The local Infra market is growing fast. There's a good demand in the commercial, industrial, and also the institutional building projects. However, the local housing market is very weak.
Actually, the good thing for us is that Sitowise Sweden is not that exposed to the weakest market segment. Order book increased following digital services contract extension, utilization rate is also on a good level. As a whole, the outlook for Sweden for our business remains good. However, there are some uncertainties related to the overall economic development in Sweden. When we look at the growth on the whole Sitowise level, then we are making good progress, especially considering the negative calendar effect of 1 working day less than in the comparison period, the challenges in the construction market, and also the weakening of the Swedish krona. We can be happy with the growth. In constant currency, we still had double-digit growth, which is in well in line with our financial growth target.
Overall, we can be very satisfied with the 5% organic growth, considering that the Buildings business area suffered from the market downturn and showed negative organic growth. In Infra, Digi, and Sweden, our organic growth was driven both by pricing and also increased volumes. The order book for the whole Sitowise level was roughly at the level of the end of March. There was a small 1% decline in the order book due to the weak market situation in the buildings and a small decline in the Infra order book. The decline in Infra's order book was related to the parliamentary elections in spring, as large Infra tenders tend to be put on hold while clients wait for national-level decisions on the Infra investments. Despite the decline in Infra's order book, it is still at a very good level.
In Digital Solutions, the order book remained at the high level of the previous quarter, and in Sweden, the order book increased as a result of this Digital Solutions' extension deal. Compared to the end of June, our order book was up by 4%, June last year. Then, great to also share with you a couple of great wins what we have had recently. The first example is from the Infra business area, which won a tender for the regional design of Helsinki West Harbor for the Port of Helsinki. The second example relates to the Digital Solutions, who won Traficom's tender for the utilization of commercial mobile communication networks.
The third example comes from Sweden, where, where we received this repeat order, what I just mentioned, for the maintenance and development of a national support system for, for road traffic. Great wins all. The three things that are important in analyzing our technical consulting business are presented here. More as a recap. The first graph shows our headcount and FTE growth, which tells about our capacity to grow. Sickness absences play a key role in the picture, as those reduce the available capacity, and then utilization rate in the third graph tells about our ability to bill available hours. During the second quarter, we had a small increase in the FTEs, and that had a minor positive impact on business.
The sickness absences were slightly up from the comparison level, and these had roughly, like a EUR 200,000 negative EBITA impact. Q2 utilization rate improved from the previous quarter, and this is mostly due to the improved utilization rate in Infra. Our Buildings business area also succeeded fairly in the workload and workforce management, taking into account the tough circumstances. Now back to Hanna.
Thanks, Heikki. We're obviously not fully satisfied with the adjusted EBITA margin, as it's eight, and this is below our target level. However, when we look at the market around us, we still conclude that this is kind of okay, and we've been able to remain as the most profitable company in our industry. The biggest reason for the profitability decline is market-driven, the weak performance in Buildings. There, both growth and profitability have taken hard hits, and we've been managing this with temporary layoffs and other efficiency measures. Heikki will soon come back to the further measures we are taking and have announced today. However, all of our business areas, including Buildings, still have clearly positive profit contribution.
The second factor impacting the profitability in Q2 were the salary increases from the collective bargaining agreements that now came into force in this quarter. We already mentioned and talked about this in connection to our Q1 reporting, and now we can see from the, the numbers that the personal costs were up by 12% compared to the previous year during Q2, while the FTE was up by 6%. The difference then reflects the, the, the impact of the salary increases. As mentioned earlier, we are mitigating this increase by focusing on pricing and our efficiency measures, for example, cutting unutilized premises, streamlining IT purchases, and, and so on. Third item, which Heikki already referred to, was that the quarter had 1 working day less than last year.
This is obviously hitting our top line and bottom line. Just as a reminder from our Q1 presentation, there will be also the similar negative calendar effects in Q3 and Q4, as both of them will have 1 working day less than the previous year. This obviously is on top of the typical seasonality in our activity level, where the Q3 is typically the lowest, as the summer vacations happen during that quarter. I already referred to the impact of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations. There, as a reminder, the increases in salary was roughly 4%, then there was like this one-off payment in Finland, which also impacts the personal costs in the rest of the year.
As Heikki mentioned, the cash flow from our operating activities increased significantly and was at EUR 9.6 million in Q2, mainly as a result of the decrease in working capital, as well as the higher operating profit. Very big improvement compared to the year before. Our net debt amount was slightly lower than at the end of March, broadly at the same level, and also the leverage remained below our long-term target level. As we mentioned already in the earlier reports this year, we extended our financing agreement in February with two years, and now we have a financing maturity until March 2026, and the terms remain the same in this extension. We are comfortable with the current balance sheet structure, and the good operative cash flow gives us also possibilities to continue on the growth path.
I think here it's good to remind that overall, our risk profile, balance sheet, cash flows, and so on, differ to a great extent from our clients in the construction industry and from the construction industry companies altogether. We are generating significant positive cash flows and have the capacity to continue growing. We've covered most of the contents of this page earlier already, but maybe one thing worth highlighting is that we doubled our results and EPS for the first six months when comparing to year 2022. Also, if we calculate the last 12 months' figures, our adjusted EBITDA was EUR 21.3 million, and the reported, or this kind of unadjusted, EBITDA was EUR 19.7 million.
This kind of indicates that the difference between these two rows, which are the kind of items affecting comparability, or so-called one-offs, is narrowing, as we have had fewer items in, in this category. Then it's time to go back to Heikki.
Thank you. Thank you. Key drivers for the profitability improvement, Of course, we need to continue and want to continue the determined actions to improve the profitability, we've already made good progress on the four main categories presented here, and also, also in this quarterly calls earlier. Pricing excellence, cost awareness, billable project work, smartest ways to work, and then also having positive profitability contribution from the recent acquisitions. The positive thing is that we are working and progressing clearly with all of these ones, and they will be supporting our, our performance. In the Buildings business area, we'll take also additional actions to improve our competitiveness and profitability.
In practice, we'll re-evaluate our Buildings' organization and its operating models, we aim at a leaner and a more agile organization that will be supporting efficient client and project work. Related to these plans, we've initiated change negotiations in our Buildings business area today, excluding its special services business segment and the support services in the Buildings area. As a part of the change negotiations, there will be reductions of a maximum 110 employees in the Buildings business. Of course, the negotiations are only now starting. We will increasingly focus on services with higher margins, and these include special services, energy, efficiency planning, and also other services related to energy, as well as security-critical services. They are clearly growing.
Of course, as I said earlier, we've been well managing the utilization rate, and of course, that continues to be the focus area. Now with this change negotiation, we'll also manage the fixed cost part of the business. Other focus areas in the business area includes further boosting the sales, pricing, and further diversification of the client base. The market outlook and guidance. The overall demand for our services is supported by the mega trends: urbanization, renovation backlog, digitalization, climate change, and also security. There are still several uncertainties in the market, which may continue to impact our clients' short-term decision making, but we don't see that they impact our business significantly. Outlook for the H2 in Buildings business is weak, and that's why we are taking the actions as well.
In Infra, Digi, and Sweden, we see both areas of stronger and weaker demand, overall, the outlook remains good. There are also other impacting factors in 2023: cost inflation, less working days than in 2022, potential currency fluctuations, higher interest expenses. Of course, we have also actions ongoing to mitigate many of these. Our guidance remains the same. We are estimating that our net sales in euros will increase, increase compared to last year, and also that our adjusted EBITA margin will be broadly at the same level as the adjusted EBITA margin last year. Earlier this month, we shared that Timo Räikkönen will start to lead the Buildings business area at the latest, February next year. He will join us from the position of Executive Vice President of Destia's Urban Development and Design Services.
Timo has a really strong experience in business management and its development from a strategic perspective, and I'm really happy to welcome such a versatile and international expert as Timo to join our team. Then like a second part of the presentation, sharing how we are progressing with our strategy. First, just recapping the main elements of our, of our strategy. Our values and new purpose, forming the culture, then our new revised vision, strategic pillars, and then also the strategic focus areas. Today I'll focus on the strategic pillars and how we are progressing with them. Starting with the most innovative.
We've already revised our innovation model to be more focused and agile so that we can capture the best ideas that, that lead to, like, a significant commercial potential, then also supporting the strategic focus areas from the last page. There is a strong focus on building an innovation culture and, by, like, truly understanding our clients' needs today and tomorrow. We also see a significant potential in using artificial intelligence in the more traditional design work what we have, and then also a lot in the digital area of our business, so software-as-a-service, maybe also Data as a Service, type of solutions that we can then bring in the future. We've also launched an innovation competition in the company to engage all Sitowise employees to innovate. That's really important.
The most sustainable, there we see a big potential in providing sustainability services to our clients. We've already had a sustainability tool and way of working in use for some time, helping our experts, experts to challenge our clients to make sustainable choices, this has been progressing well and will also continue to develop the solution further. In addition to that, we'll we have identified areas with high growth and margin potential, and those are renewable energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, and then circular economy. We have set clear targets for each one of these, and also we've just lately revised our sales organization and also, like, management practices, and are looking forward that they will be supporting us to reach these targets during the strategy period.
Also, several things are going to improve our own operations related sustainability. The most efficient, there we have taken the first steps to find the smartest ways to work. This means improved processes, ways of working to help scaling our business, and also further improving efficiency. We are also in the middle of renewing our ERP system, and we'll also introduce CRM to help with the increased customer activity and sales management. A lot ongoing here with all the strategic pillars. Recapping also what we shared in our Capital Markets Day in June. There are 2 key strategic goals in addition to the financial targets. The first one being that we want to grow our recurring revenue to be 10% of our annual net sales by the end of 2025.
The second one is that we want to double our sustainability services revenue to exceed EUR 10 million by the end of the strategy period. Of course, there are also different measures on, on the clients' perception on us, which is naturally a backbone for the growth. Here is a summary once more of our strategy. Now I think it's time for the questions.
Thank you, Heikki and Hanna. We have a couple questions here. The first is related to Buildings. How much has the market outlook worsened during Q2 in Buildings, and how challenging do you see the year 2024 being in Buildings?
Yeah. I would say that, if we compare to the, the second quarter to the first quarter, no, no big change there. In that sense, it's just been weak for the H1, which actually already started last year then. Now why we've also taken actions is that we see that, okay, this will continue at least for the H2, probably also the beginning of 2024. That's also probably answering the question. That's why we see that this will be taking a bit longer than earlier thought.
Thank you. How much are you looking to save with the change negotiations in the Buildings business, and which timeframe are these negotiations going to take place?
The change negotiations started today, and we are, we are looking forward that the outcome of the negotiations will be clear in the beginning of October. What comes to the, like, outcomes, of course, it's, it's actually too early to say. However, of course, we are looking at, like, a meaning- meaningful impact on our, our Buildings business.
Okay. Thank you. How is the M&A market at the moment?
Yeah, still we see that there's, like, a room for consolidation in the market overall, both in Finland and Sweden, and we are also managing tightly our, our pipeline, and there are attractive opportunities. Hanna, any, any more insights?
Yeah. Maybe can just comment that even if now there's been only one concluded transaction this year, we've been working and continue to work on, on different projects, so we are active. Obviously, we continue to be selective, but, but, there are opportunities, and I think also our very strong cash flow and the kind of leverage, which is below the target, give us, like, ammunition to continue that. Yeah, looks, looks like we can, we can continue on that path as well.
Okay, thank you. Moving on to the... more to the strategy side, could you elaborate a bit how you are progressing with your aims to increase recurring revenue to 10% of annual net sales and to double sustainability service-related revenues?
Yeah, both are progressing. As I shared today, they are the key priorities for us from, like, a strategic goal point of view. If I start with the sustainable services, actually we already have, like, a good, good basis there. As we shared in the Capital Markets Day, we are, like, we are having a EUR 5 million business, that's growing well. There's a clearly boom in the market, and we want to capture that one, and we are also now having more like a targeted sales actions to improve that further. Then when it comes to the recurring revenue, we say that we are at the level of 4%, and we are clearly progressing with that one as well.
Of course, this Bitcomp company, which we acquired one year ago, they have a solid SaaS business and LeafPoint solution. Now it's been basically rolled out. We are seeing that that will be also supporting well with our target. That's also progressing well. At the same time, we also have some fresh ideas in the R&D pipeline. We are progressing.
Sounds good. Then we have a question about the business area profitability, which we typically don't comment, but anyway, there is a question about Sweden and Digital Solutions, and where is their profitability at the moment.
Yeah-
you can share on that?
We are not, we are not disclosing the business area profitabilities.
Mm-hmm.
So
Yes.
Yeah.
Those were the questions for today. I would like to thank Heikki and Hanna for the presentation, and the audience for watching and for the questions. Next time we will meet you in connection of our Q3 results in early November.