Hello everybody. Happy that you could join today. We are from Solwers, and we are here today to tell you about the second half and full 2022 results. In our presentations today will be our CEO Stefan Nyström and, unfortunately, our CFO who was supposed to be here today has suddenly fallen ill, so we have our Finance Director Janne Mäntyranta from Solwers Finland organization here. During the presentation, it's possible to ask questions you have. Under the webcast, there is a place where you can post the questions. Please add your whole name there, because if we don't have time to take all the questions, it's also possible for us then to get back to you afterwards. That's the practicality. Now we can go to the presentation. Here you go. Stefan, please.
Thank you, Taina, and welcome to business review, Solwers business review 2020. If we go to the highlights, we had the strong growth continued and our profitability was close to our target and equity rate was above our midterm targets. Order stock and invoicing rate were on a good level, and we acquired, we bought two companies which joined the group in the end of the year. We also had a share issue for selected investor in December, and we intend to use this EUR 4.5 million to more to buy more companies. If you look at our growth, we have been growing 40.6% the last year, and we are now have a revenue of almost EUR 63 million.
On the EBITDA side, we have 11.5%. It was improvement from last year and in numbers, it was equal to EUR 7.2 million, and the equity ratio was 46.7%. The new companies that we have been buying was Establish Schening, management consulting company in Stockholm, who is in logistic solutions both for people and for goods. We have a subsidiary to Lukkaroinen Architects. It was integrated to Lukkaroinen in Turku. Arkkitehtitoimisto Sabelström. By that, we have also access to Turku market, which is difficult to access if you are not present there.
Some interesting projects, schools and hospitals is typical what Lukkaroinen Architects are designing, and we have actually 3 big hospitals projects ongoing, 1 in Oulu, 1 in Helsinki, and 1 in Espoo. Additionally, we are doing a lot of school projects, and we also won a competition, architectural competition. It was our subsidiary Lukkaroinen who won that, and it was the Kuopio Senior High School of Arts, nickname LUMIT. Other interesting projects, this is a typical example where we are cooperating together in these projects. We are 4 Solwers companies involved. For the architectural design, ADT is responsible, Pontec for the structural engineering, and rock engineering is Rockplan, and then noise and vibration measurement is done by Kalliotekniikka.
This is actually a former warehouse inside rock that the army has been using, and now it's rebuilt to a multipurpose arena. In North Sweden, we are involved in the Norrbotnia railway line. It's in the design phase now, and we are actually supporting the client with project management, technical support, and all type of safety issues. We have another also very interesting project in North Sweden. It's we are supporting Trafikverket in the implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System, which is a huge project and we are supporting with expertise for design, contracting, commissioning, construction management, and supervision.
We are also involved in Sweden in these kind of industry solutions for famous companies and also train coupling systems and all kind of transmission of electricity and power from, for example, wind farms and other power plants. If you look what has happened after the year 2022, we have acquired a new company which name is Transport Consultancy Group Nordic. It is based in Stockholm, and it is specialized in technical consultancy and rail industry or for the rail industry. Typically customers are the Swedish State Railways and other regional public organizations who are engaged in rail transport, as well as leading international train suppliers. As part of the purchasing price, we also had a direct share issue for the sellers in this case.
Circular economy, we have won a project which was arranged by City of Espoo. It's in the region of Kera. There are old warehouses that is meant to be reused for different purpose. Our proposal was. The name of our proposal was To the Next Level, and we actually won this. We also believe that this circular economy will be something that will be very, we will be very much involved in the future. There is will be more buildings that will be rebuilt and material will be reused and not demolished and used as road material as before. If, then I would like to give the word to Janne, can present the figures briefly, and then I will come back a little bit late.
Thank you, Stefan. I mean, as Taina explained in the beginning, I've unfortunately had a little bit of a short preparation time for the webcast as I'm covering for our CFO. I will have to go through the key items fairly on a high level. I mean, as Stefan said before, we had a very strong growth in 2022, mainly due to acquisitions of course, and not only the acquisitions that we've made in during 2022, the two ones, but also the 12-month impact of 2021 acquisitions, which we had two towards the end of 2021. When you think about the growth, I mean, we've achieved all this in spite of, let's say, having a headwind from currency. Swedish krona depreciated during the year pretty much 5%-10%.
If you compare the year-end rates, it's actually about 10%. Considering all the headwind from the currency, I mean, I think it's a major achievement in growing that number. As far as the profitability is concerned, obviously the revenue growth flows into the different margins. Basically at the same time, we have been able to improve the EBITDA and EBIT margins, some 1 to 0.6 percentage points compared to prior year. When we look at the various cost pools, I think our gross margin is pretty much on the same level as full year last year. Personnel cost is very slightly up compared to revenue, from relation to revenue. The improvement in margin pretty much comes from the other operating expenses.
I would say more specifically from IT and facilities costs. Of course, with facilities cost, you have to bear in mind that some of the facilities' cash cost actually transfers to depreciation through IFRS 16 treatment. However, I mean, I don't think there's any one particular cost item which would have a very significant impact. These are quite slight improvements. All in all, I mean, in the end, the EBIT percentage is 8.1% compared to 7.5% last year. Pretty much as an end result, the earnings per share grew to EUR 0.38 per share compared to EUR 0.23, a restated 2021 number, which is about 65% growth all in all.
If we then move to next key figures, revenue per employee, a slight drop, compared to last year. No major drop in. There are some obviously during the second half, some sick leaves, lower utilization in some parts of the organization, but pretty much. That's also reflected on the billing rate. All in all, I would say on a general level, on a 2021, on a previous year levels, all in all. If we then move to balance sheet, I think from the balance sheet point of view, I would say quite uneventful 2022. Obviously, goodwill is reflecting the acquisitions that we have made during the year, and also the cash position at the year end very strong. It's reflecting the directed share issue in December.
Other than that, I think on the asset side, no major changes there. We look at the liabilities and equity side of things. We would move there, that would be great. Actually, sorry, I'm pushing the wrong button. My fault. Obviously the strong equity is reflecting of course the same directed share issue as the cash position. Also the liabilities loans from credit institutions is reflecting the loans raised actually during the first half of 2022. When we think about the loans from credit institutions, I mean, I think the maturity. The loans are maturing quite gradually. I think there will be a bit of a hike in 2026. Other than that, I think we're looking at about EUR 2.5 million maturing every year.
We then move to cash flow, again, I would say that we had a very strong operating cash flow. I mean, obviously following the growth. The investments and cash from financing activities, as I said, I mean, obviously we have the loans raised and the share issue. Those are kind of like balancing each other out. In the end, the increase in cash, EUR 5.8 million in the end. If we then move to the board's proposal for the distribution of profit, the proposal being then EUR 0.073 per share, which is a significant increase compared to last year's EUR 0.04 per share. That was all from the financials.
Thank you.
I'll hand back to Stefan.
Thank you, Janne. Okay, let's have a look at the outlook. We will maintain our midterm financial targets. Same level as before. We aim for a growth of 20%, EBITDA level of more than 12%, and equity ratio more than 40%. If you then look at the market, we think that the transition to fossil-free energy and industrial production will bring significant new investments and also work for us in kind of engineering. A variety of new energy sources like energy storage, power transmission systems, and automation solutions will increase the demand for engineering and project management services. We are happy about that. It's also likely that the residential and office construction will decrease during 2023, and actually has already in some sense decreased.
As only a minor share of Solwers' revenue comes from residential and office projects, we believe that if the downturn is mild as forecasted, the impact on Solwers will be not significant. We of course don't know how 2023, end of 2023 will look like, the forecasts are now actually saying that, which we have to trust is that it will not be a very, very deep downturn. Circular economy projects will continue to grow rapidly. That will also bring more projects, as the reuse of building requires more engineering and project management than new construction.
We have also, if we look at the past, in the last decade, we have had actually suffered from a chronic shortage of skilled professionals. Before we end up in a lack of resources to lack of work, there will take some time. A mild recession is likely to ease and balance out the labor demand. If you then look at Solwers' outlook for 2023, we expect revenue to grow and earnings to remain on a good level. We intend to continue acquisitions with support or which support our existing business. We manage our business risk by operating in many locations, in two different countries, and by having a diverse service portfolio consisting of a large number of projects.
Demand for engineering and project management work related to energy production and circular economy project is also expected to grow and give us new opportunities. All in all, we think that if the recession or downturn will not be very severe, then also this year will be good for Solwers. Thank you.
Thank you. Now we are coming back. We have got a couple of questions, the first one I think I can take. Petri is asking if Transport Consultancy Group consolidated from March onwards to Solwers' numbers. According to my knowledge, it's from the beginning of May. I checked a release draft.
Okay.
Sorry, we are a bit, struggling now here.
Oh, I think we'll might have to come back to that.
Yeah, we come back.
Because my understanding, it might be March, but, I mean, if you have different information, then-
Yes, I have May. We'll get back to you, Petri, on this. I happen to know your number. Another one is, did you use less subcontracting during the second half of last year than in the comparison period?
Maybe Janne has better figures.
Subcontractors?
Yeah. I mean, at looking at the cost, I think you can draw that conclusion, yes. That the second half we did use less subcontracting. I mean, the second half cost for materials is significantly lower than the first half.
Okay
Answer to that would be, yes, I believe so.
Yes, okay. Is your revenue growth outlook based on acquisitions, or do you expect to be able to grow organically?
It's based on acquisitions, but of course, we also try to grow organically. 2022, the organic growth was positive, but below half a percentage, it was lower than the years before. It's a focus to also be able to grow. We are of course depending also about on the market situation. Yes, we will try to also grow organically, but mainly it is based on M&As.
Okay. one more. how did you book the costs from the directed share issues? Do you know, or should we get back on this as well?
Well, we might want to come back, but I mean, my understanding is that you book them directly into the equity.
Into the equity.
But-
Okay
Let's if we know who they are.
Okay.
who's asking.
We know the person-.
Might come back.
Who asked the question.
Yes.
Yes. These were all the questions that we had. Thank you for joining us today. The webcast video as well as the presentation material will be available on our website, probably if not today, tomorrow at least. Thank you for joining us today.