Good morning, and welcome to Tietoevry's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings webcast. My name is Tommi Järvenpää, the head of Tietoevry's Investor Relations. Today, we will naturally go through our earnings development and outlook, but in addition, we will also discuss the progress in Tietoevry Banking strategic review. With me here today are our President and CEO, Kimmo Alkio, and CFO, Tomi Hyryläinen, who will next go through the highlights and results of the quarter. Kimmo, please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and a warm welcome also on my behalf. Very exciting, another quarter we have behind, the highlights being we were able to deliver resilient performance in quite a mixed market environment. Growth of 1%, and having seen solid underlying performance in software businesses, which tend to be somewhat less impacted by potential macroeconomic volatility. Healthy profitability, slightly over 14%, naturally supported by efficiency measures executed, especially throughout the second half of 2023. We are today confirming good progress with the strategic reviews. In case of Banking, the demerger is being proposed to list the business, retaining the optionality for other alternatives and sales process ongoing in light of, ongoing in parallel in light of the market interest.
Furthermore, in the case of Tech Services, we are on track with the previously announced schedule, and we have active engagement with potential buyers. Finally, the final main message we have, we do have increased dividend, as proposed by the board of directors, at EUR 1.47. I would also like to confirm our utmost attention and continued firm execution of our specialization-based strategy, whereby the implementation began two years ago. Us building businesses which will be taking advantage of the cloud data, AI, GenAI-centric opportunities in the world are very important foundations for building further growth and scale for the businesses and for the group. All businesses continue their distinctive paths to be aiming to be amongst the best in the market, and we have an ongoing process, naturally, of repositioning Tietoevry as a leading software and digital engineering company.
Given the current environment, we think it's worthwhile pausing briefly regarding other factors in the environment. We do see, like many of our peer companies, commenting continued soft macroeconomic environment. This also impacts the IT market demand. We'll talk about this a bit further as part of our guidance. We naturally continue high attention on resilience, both in terms of supporting our customers achieving their resilience and efficiency objectives, and naturally, continued attention in our own operations. We do anticipate the geopolitical environment, the fragility of the geopolitical environment to continue, and for us, naturally, very important, the support for our Ukrainian colleagues and their families.
I'd also like to confirm our strong attention and investments into cloud, cloud and AI-centric technologies that continue to be really important for our clients and will support businesses to advance and, over time, beneficial to the societies within which we live. Regarding the full year, revenue growth of 4%, adjusted EBITDA at EUR 359 million, 12.6%, operating cash flow at EUR 266 million, order backlog being EUR 3.2 billion, net debt to EBITDA at 2.2. Throughout the year, we have seen solid performance in software businesses, while Create and Tech Services impacted by the softer market, especially after Q1 of 2023.
The performance resilience enabled by proactive efficiency measures, which I commented earlier, and naturally, important to continue our attractive, dividend proposition, as commented earlier here, representing a dividend yield of 6.8%. As always, I'd like to make a couple of comments on interesting and important wins in the... In the fourth quarter, we are seeing good success winning footprint in the marketplace in all the businesses. In digital engineering business, as everybody well aware, we call the Tietoevry Create. In the software and platform side, we have our Banking business, the Create, the Care and Industry, managed service and transformation category, with Tech Services, each of the businesses having their very distinctive peer groups.
What we can see in common in the wins is the importance of the combination of cloud-centric modernization and as well as gaining more value out of data, whether it is machine learning, artificial intelligence, and to be fair, early stages of GenAI proof of concepts and use cases. I would also like to comment importance of sustainability and our continued development in this category. I'd like to comment on the four factors today of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction. We are at 84% level. Goal was, in this three-year program, 80% reduction. We are at 99% carbon-free electricity, one percentage point short of the goal of 100%.
We have, on the diversity side, we have 31% of women in the workforce globally, and we continue to make progress in this category. We have an ambitious goal by 2026 of 40%. Furthermore, the importance of employee engagement at the healthy level at 82. This has been a very important factor, given all the different eras we have experienced in the last 2-3-year timeframe, and we continue to be a really good employer for 24,000 colleagues. Naturally, of high degree of interest today, I'd like to carefully go through the recovery activities of this criminal ransomware attack that took place in one of our many data centers.
It took place in Sweden, in one data center, in one segment of this one data center, in the night of 19th to 20th January. I do want to always confirm our consideration and apology. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused by the ransomware attack. We share this very openly. The attack impacted customers across a number of industries and consequently, more broadly, the Swedish society. Today, we are highlighting progress made to date. We are at the 90% level of server and system restoration, while the recovery of customers' full set of services at 70%, the delta being work required to be done by either third-party application providers and/or service providers to get back into full service availability. All restorations are being solved with the highest possible urgency.
Short considerations on actions taken and ongoing, we naturally informed the police and relevant authorities immediately on Saturday, the 20th of January. We executed in the night of 19th to 20th of January the crisis mode, fully according to the high-urgency timetables, including throughout the night war rooms. As this was happening, the affected platform was isolated immediately, and no impact to other data centers or infrastructure. We have naturally assessed the potential attack vectors and carried out related security verifications. We also today want to offer the consideration and our important opinion that due to the criminal nature of the attack and for security reasons, we cannot publicly share the technical details of the attack, the restoration details, nor customer-specific information. This is also the clear advice from authorities and third-party security companies.
To confirm, full attention continues until all customer systems are restored. We are today also highlighting current estimate of the business impact. As a background, the customer services impacted here represent approximately 1.5% of group revenues. We anticipate the incremental operational cost in the early part of the year, primarily Q1, to be between EUR 1 million and EUR 2 million, similarly impacting revenues and profit. Important to confirm, our company's profile and role as a service provider, naturally, we do have cybersecurity insurance in place also to address the challenges of service interruptions customers have had. As a final summary, very important, we continue full collaboration also with the authorities to complete the investigation and dedicate every day, every second, highest attention with customers to reach full restoration.
Today, we have been sharing quite constructive progress, as highlighted with the 90% of impacted servers and 70% of full services. Next, I'd like to go into part of the core of, naturally, the fourth quarter considerations and performance. We already talked about the organic growth of 1%, healthy profitability level, supported by by number of efficiency programs, healthy cash flow of EUR 153 million, order backlog flat. Here, fair to highlight that the fourth quarter book-to-bill was slightly over 1.4. That's an important development. Next, we go into Tietoevry Create growth, clearly impacted by lower demand, growth of 1%, profitability at 15%.
This is the business that tends to be impacted first in a downward-trending economic environment, impacting some of our businesses within Create. That is not the case in every market and every customer engagement. The larger engagements of strategic nature, as we had commented earlier, many of them continue to develop favorably. And we want to highlight the unpredictability of business from Ukraine given the unfortunate and dynamic developments of the war. Healthy profitability is being supported by actions taken on capacity adjustment as we are in an era of lower demand.
And to confirm, Harri Salomaa was appointed as the acting managing director as of ninth of January, running the full operation, and having the experience to do so, given his prior roles in the company and naturally, before being with Tietoevry. Tietoevry Banking, nice to highlight the continued strong underlying growth, growth of 5%. Here, good to recognize fourth quarter of 2022 included four percentage points of positive one-time impact. Growth driven by the combination of cards, wealth, and financial crime prevention, profitability at the 14.3% level, supported in addition to naturally top-line development, the cost optimization measures taken, during the second half of the year, while these are partly offset by the increased cost resulting from legal separation.
We are highlighting separately on Banking, the strong order intake, including a big Nordic bank and number of significant renewals. Tietoevry Care, consistent strong profitability, well aligned with our own expectations, organic growth of 2%, driven by the welfare and data and analytics side. As we had highlighted since last summer, we have anticipated, and it has materialized temporary demand reduction, given the health and social reform in the country of Finland. Profitability continues strong at a 30% level, driven by the scalability that has been built into the software architectures of this business. Still a lot to do more to deliver even greater scalability for all software suites in care.
This part is referring primarily on the Care side to the hospital information systems on the suite we call Lifecare, which is getting very positive feedbacks, including the user experience as it's been designed with doctors and nurses. Strong order intake in welfare in Sweden and Norway. Then we go into Tietoevry Industry, as we had expected throughout the second half, healthy performance, fourth quarter organic growth of 6%, driven especially by pulp and paper, as well as data platforms. Healthy profitability, 16.6%, and there's an implication where we are may not be fully satisfied, as there were lower year-end license sales, somewhat impacting profitability. Good development, as mentioned overall, and as we had announced earlier, Carsten Henke began as the Managing Director of this business as of first of November.
Regarding Tietoevry Tech Services, the highlight would be the solid profitability development to 10.2%. It has been very important cost structure optimization programs throughout the second half of the year, while on the top line, the market slowdown is visible and continues to be visible in shorter cycle time, cycle time and material work, and has impacted, especially in the fourth quarter, the data and application services side, which declined by 8%. Cloud platform and security growing by two percentage point, traditional infrastructure quite stable at the -7% level, while user experience services up by 11%. Then, as commented, the efficiency program were implemented very rigidly. With this in mind, now over to Tomi.
Thank you, Kimmo, and good morning, everyone. Despite the softer market as discussed, we delivered healthy financials for Q4. Our resilient performance was largely due to our proactive actions taken to respond to the lowering demand during the year, as well as overall cost cautiousness across the company. At the same time, we've taken firm steps towards forward with our strategy agenda in our specialized businesses and in the strategic reviews, as discussed today. Our reported numbers continue to be impacted by significant FX headwind due to depreciation of Norwegian and Swedish currencies. Q4 impact to revenue was -EUR 43 million. Our Q4 one-time items were EUR 13 million, and full year was at the expected levels of approximately 2% of revenue, which included 1% from the strategic reviews. Our Q4 cash flow was strong, which I'll cover in the next page....
So we delivered strong operative cash flow of EUR 153 million. Our cash flow was supported by positive working capital development of EUR 28 million, despite the Q4 ending on a weekend, impacting negatively the AR level, similar to Q3. Overall, our cash generation foundation remains healthy. Our net debt decreased by EUR 42 million, ending up EUR 912 million, and net debt EBITDA was 2.2 at year-end. The slight increase in the leverage metric was due to the lower LTM EBITDA compared to Q3 of 2023, and a big contributor to this being the FX rates. On personnel side, the rolling twelve-month attrition continued to decline, being 10.1% at the end of Q4, with quarterly attrition being already below our normal level of 10%-12%.
Net headcount decreased by approximately 400 FTEs from Q3, mainly driven by the efficiency measures to respond to the lower demand environment, as discussed. We have also reduced recruitment pace to respond to the lower attrition levels. Group-level salary inflation was 5% for 2023, as expected, and we estimate the 2024 salary inflation to be slightly lower, between 4%-5%. Next, I'll summarize the performance drivers for Q1. On growth drivers, we expect the Q1 growth to be the lowest quarter for the year due to impact from negative working days of 1.5 day-1.4 days and high comparables. Consistent with Q4, the weaker economic environment will continue to impact Create and Tech Services. In Tietoevry Create, the negative working days will have the highest impact of the businesses due to the consulting nature of that business.
Tietoevry Banking is expected to continue its good momentum, however, impacted by the high comparable. Finnish healthcare reform continues to impact the growth in Tietoevry Care. On profit drivers, we see positive impact from the efficiency measures executed during 2023. In Tech Services, good to remember, the annual price discounts will kick in in January, consistent with every year. In Banking, the legal separation, which was done in Q2 2023, will continue to impact, the impact being 1.5 percentage point on profit.
Negative working day impact to profit at group level, we estimate to be approximately minus 1 percentage points. On other drivers, the FX impact is estimated to decrease and be approximately 10%, on revenue. Then the profitability outlook per business for Q1. Create and Care, we expect to be below prior year level. Industry and Tech Services are expected to be at the level of prior year profit, and Banking is expected to be above Q1 of last year. Over to you, Kim.
Thank you, Tomi. Next, I'd like to go through two things. First, the perspectives on guidance, and then the deeper considerations on the strategic reviews. First, the background to our guidance. We expect our addressable market to grow 0%-2%, and the demand for software to remain healthy. The overall market softness expected to continue in H1, and actually, at this point of the year, limited visibility into H2. Organic growth, we expect to be normalizing after the first quarter, and as Tomi mentioned, Q1 impacted by the high comparables and fewer working days. To be fair, also, our guidance range reflects the macroeconomic environment and related uncertainty. With all these considerations in mind, our organic growth guidance between 0% and 3% and Adjusted EBITDA 12.0-13.0 level.
Overall, our consideration for way forward, we absolutely continue to advance our strategic agenda and drive for business resilience. All businesses continue their strategic intent and aim to be among the best in the market. As we'll go through the strategic reviews in a minute, these will continue with very high momentum, and we continue to work actively to capture the opportunities of, I would say, once the economy gets somewhat healthier, then grabbing the future opportunities in the cloud and AI-centric world. With this as a background, we'd like to now go deeper into the very interesting topic today of the strategic reviews. So first, I will do the prompt summaries of both, and we'll go into more detail then in a few minutes on Tietoevry Banking.
So first, the main, main messages on, on the Banking side... our board of directors is proposing a demerger to list the business while retaining the optionality to pursue other alternatives. As we see the market interest towards Tietoevry Banking, sales process is ongoing in parallel. Also, to confirm, the management team has been strengthened during the first quarter with Minna Smedsten appointed and started as CFO on the first of February. Regarding Tech Services, we have three messages, if I may. First of all, we are on schedule. That's and a lot of effort ongoing naturally equally for Tech Services. We have active, active engagement with potential buyers ongoing, and we anticipate the strategic review conclusions by the end of second quarter this year. Then into a more granular perspective on Tietoevry Banking.
As mentioned, the board of directors has decided to continue the separation process and has approved a demerger plan. Proposal is to separate Tietoevry Banking as a standalone company to be listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. The demerger is subject to shareholder approval in an EGM expected to be held in June of this year. There is a preliminary target to complete the demerger on thirtieth of June. Upon completion, shareholders to receive Tietoevry Banking shares in proportion to their shareholding in Tietoevry. We have taken steps to secure the financing for both Tietoevry Corporation and Tietoevry Banking for the purposes of the demerger in the form of term and credit facilities amounting to EUR 852 million with certain Nordic banks.
To confirm, Tietoevry's board of directors retain the optionality to pursue other alternatives before completion of the demerger, if in the best interest of Tietoevry and its shareholders. As mentioned earlier, sales process ongoing in parallel. With this in mind, this will lead into the opportunity of separating Tietoevry Banking and be able to realize the value as a specialized financial services fintech software player as an independent company. Furthermore, we continue the repositioning of Tietoevry as a leading software and digital engineering company for further growth, scale, and value creation. I'd like to also confirm the rationale behind the Banking to operate as a standalone firm and focus on an even faster pace on its strategic priorities.
The opportunity to position Tietoevry Banking as a fintech software company in the eyes and minds of customers, and in the eyes and minds of global talent specializing in fintech software, and given the opportunity to become valued in line with the fintech software-centric peer group, and very importantly, to be able to build its own investments for growth and scale, with the timeliness required to maximize potential to accelerate performance and driving additional shareholder value. A few factors, quantitatively of the business in Tietoevry Banking: significant share of customers, over 400. Part of the business has already begun in the recent years, internationalizing 3,500 employees globally.
For 2023, organic growth of 10%, adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.4%, even or also within an economic environment with degrees of softness in the macro. I'd also like to confirm the business mix and solution portfolio, as often having been discussed also in the interim reports. We have five SaaS and software-centric solution areas making up slightly over 70% of revenues, payment side, the cards, financial crime prevention, credit, and wealth. And many of these businesses have already begun expansion outside the Nordics, and naturally, strong presence in the Nordics as well.
Then we have the on the platform side, the Banking as a platform, approximately 30%, practically 29%, scalable, compliant, API-based, end-to-end Banking platform, primarily and currently for the Norwegian market. Very formidable, extensive role that Banking plays in terms of the types and number of transactions, very critical for the customers, and all this as a foundation for further market expansion. And now, over to Tomi.
Yes, for the clarity purposes, I will still summarize the intended timeline for the demerger. So as of today, the board has proposed a demerger for Banking, and we will be filing the demerger plan today. Early March, we will begin the consent solicitation process for the bondholders, and simultaneously, we will be coming out with supplementary financial information to support the process, of course, primarily for the remaining companies' bondholders.
In May, the prospectus is expected to be issued ahead of the extraordinary general meeting, which will be held during June, with the effective date of the merger planned to be thirtieth of June, with first trading on or about first of July, ASAP after the demerger effective date. Also, Tietoevry Banking is planning to host investor events along the process to provide further insight into the business. These timelines we will get back later on. This concludes our presentation, and we're ready to move into Q&A.
Thank you, Kimmo and Tomi. We are now ready for the questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Christoffer Wang Bjørnsen from DNB Bank ASA. Please go ahead.
Hi, Christoffer here from DNB Markets. So you say in the review that there's interest from potential buyers for the Banking business, but that you are pursuing a spin-off on the listing. Does that mean that you will sell the business for cash if you're offered a price you deem good enough, and that if you don't sell it, you'll distribute 100% of the business to your shareholders?
Yeah, thank you, Christoffer. So as a normal process in these type of spin-offs, the market also activates, and we, of course, naturally are obligated to look at that, and that's where the comment comes from, that we look at the market interest and evaluate that if it's in the best interest of the shareholders.
Thank you. Then a quick follow-up on that. So you're gonna be mentioning this parallel process of looking to, to sell the business. Is that only for the—for the Banking business as a whole, or are you seeing that there are also opportunities to sell parts of the business that does not necessarily fit into this whole, SaaS and fintech, kind of framework, of the Banking business as a whole? Like, for instance, car manufacturing or yeah.
We don't, Christopher, want to speculate at this point in time on these questions.
All right. Thank you for taking my questions.
The next question comes from Daniel Djurberg from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, Kimmo and Tomi, and congrats to the board decision. I think I would like to ask you also on the Banking, on the alternative side, from the start of the demerger process and up to date, have you been approached by any serious bidder for this unit as of today, or is it only of... Yeah, that's the question.
Yeah. So I kind of answered that question already. So we evaluate any-
Okay
... market interest, unfortunately-
Yeah
... it should not go any further than that, so.
Fair, fair enough. May I ask you also on, with regards to Tech Services, you say that you will continue this process up until late Q2. And given a decision of a spin-off or a sell, how far have you come with the, you know, separating the unit with regards to the intra-group processes, et cetera? Yeah, that's the question.
Yeah, really good question, and of course, I mean, as you can all, all tell, these are big carve-outs that we are now contemplating with the strategic reviews. We are actually very far in the process, and we have been communicating earlier of the legal structures, the carve-out financials, all the internal processes, so we are very far to confirm.
Perfect. And, and my last question, before I get back to the queue, would be on the order backlog. It's down around some 2.7%, partly of structural reasons. Can you comment on volume versus price in this, if you see a price increase year over year, or if it's... Yeah, yeah, the mix would be great to know.
Yeah. So, if I first comment on the order backlog, so order backlog strengthened 7.5% from Q3 to Q4.
Yeah.
When you adjust that with the effects, we are at the same level as we were at prior years. So it, it has not deteriorated, just to confirm that.
Yeah.
And then we don't publicly talk about the mix of the volume and price for our order backlog, so.
That's fair enough. I'll get back to the queue then. Thanks.
The next question comes from Sami Sarkamies from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, I have questions regarding the ransomware attack. You're flagging direct effects being EUR 1-2 million revenue loss and EUR 1-2 million of extra costs. Will this be treated as normal operating items and not any one-offs?
The restoration cost, we will treat as OTIs. The revenue loss and that margin impact is operational.
Okay. Do you have any impacts on indirect effects that may arise due to negative impacts on your customers' business?
. Time will tell. I think there we need to, of course, carefully make sure the restorations are completed. So, time will tell. We look at it humbly, to be fair, with many customers, very close collaboration, all recognizing that, this criminal attack is towards our company as a service provider. But naturally, some customers have bigger challenges, and we need to work very closely that we get the full restorations completed. So nothing really else to, I think, comment on that.
Okay. And then, regarding the insurance cover that you're flagging, just thinking about more material, indirect effects to your customers, are you confident that you're covered by the insurance? I'm thinking of a scenario where the attack could have happened, for example, because of weaknesses at your practices.
As you would understand, we have very sort of good coverage and good understanding of what the insurance does, and we feel comfortable that we have sufficient insurance for this type of incident.
Okay. And then finally, if you think about the ongoing trade sale for Tech Services, do you see this incident complicating the sales process?
Should not. Of course, we need to make sure that the firmness of the restoration, and we today shared the incident data on, on the progress on restoration, with that in mind, should not. Of course, we need to complete all the steps carefully. Currently, my perspective would be that the restoration timing we have been able to do is quite typical for such criminal ransomware activities. They do very often take several weeks. And then again, as mentioned, all the final parts of getting everybody 100% up and running, this attention absolutely continues.
Okay. And then my final question would be on industry, where I think you missed your own margin guidance in the fourth quarter. You're talking about lower license sales. Can you elaborate on the matter a bit, more in detail?
So we normally get, sort of towards the year-end, more license sales. That's the normal skew of the software businesses, and this year it was less than we anticipated.
Yes. Yeah.
That-
But will this come with impacts on the outlook for this year as well?
The totality proceeded quite fine, so then, naturally, the kind of penetration and uptake on the SaaS side, more and more of the software businesses are shifting to SaaS. So this is kind of part of the normal shift.
Okay. Thanks. I don't have any further questions.
The next question comes from Matti Riikonen, from Carnegie Investment Bank, Finland Branch. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. It's Matti Riikkonen, Carnegie. Couple of questions. I'll take them one by one. First, regarding your debt. Your net debt increased by 34%, and net debt to EBITDA is now 2.2. It's slightly above your target range. And of course, financing costs have increased. At the same time, you are increasing dividends. So do you think that you can reduce the debt with organic cash flow, or are you expecting that the cash proceeds from the separate listing could help the situation? So do you plan to have any kind of cash from the separate listing of Banking?
So many questions. First, to answer, yes, we are able to fund the dividends through our cash flow, in a normal setting. So this year, unfortunately, we were slightly below. In Q4, we recovered the cash flow profile. So that to answer that, and then, of course, sort of this, Banking separation. So as it was announced, now it's a spin-off where we don't issue any new shares, so are not collecting cash from that.
All right. Then regarding price increases in consulting and Tech Services contracts, do you think that they will fully cover the current cost inflation?
Likely not fully. There's of course the type of a price competitiveness tends to a little bit vary around the world, if I first talk about Create. And that is naturally subject to how the distinctive macros develop then. And Tech Services, actually, we have number of different kind of businesses within Tech Services if we were to separate the infrastructure, the application side, and the data layers. So to be fair, if I synthesize a bit what is required to continue the favorable development on the profit side, the attention on efficiency and capacity will be required. Naturally, given this whole umbrella of resilience that we think is very important, and macro will continue to be somewhat soft remains our opinion.
All right. Thanks for that. Then in Tech Services, do you plan to make larger restructuring efforts in the first half, which is a kind of typical time to do them, or do you think that the measures you made in 2023 are enough to keep the cost base competitive, at least so far?
... So currently we are not, we have not announced and are not doing any activities of such nature in Tech Services.
All right. And then finally, can you comment your average capacity utilization in Create? Are you at normal levels, or are you below normal levels? And, how does that impact your recruiting activity going forward?
So that's a really good question. If you look at the profit level of Q4, you can tell that that was around 50%. So we did reduce the capacity, and you can see it in the FTE developments as well. So we're approximately, what? 200 FTE is down from end of Q3 to Q4. We are towards the more normalized levels of the utilization currently.
Yeah.
And then, of course, the market development continues to be quite slow, and as I commented, we have cut down the recruitment pace for the lower attrition on the market.
All right. Thank you. That was all from me.
The next question comes from Felix Henriksson from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Hi, Kimmo and Tommi. Thanks for taking my questions. I have three quick ones. Firstly, on Care, I think that's a segment that where you also missed your margin guidance. You were sort of seeing flat margins there, but you ended up coming in roughly 200 basis points below the previous year level. So just wanted to clarify if there was something funny going on with the profitability of that business. Why was that?
Yeah, no, I mean, you're right, nothing specific there. So it's at very good levels, and we're not at all concerned that there would be any trends of any other.
Right. Then regarding industry and the outlook, you've sort of mentioned in your previous reports that the outlook for industry continues to be healthy, whereas for the Q1 soft guidance, you've now left that comment out. Is there sort of incremental macroeconomic impact now also affecting this business, or what's the reason for the change there?
Maybe we should have, from the completeness sake, put a bullet on that one as well. There's no really sort of anything to comment. It will continue at this good levels for Q1.
Got it. And then the last one on the book-to-bill ratio that you mentioned to be above 1.4 for the fourth quarter. Could you remind us where it was, for example, in the third quarter, and how good this number is in the context of the previous sort of quarters during 2023?
So this is higher. We were below one in Q3, as I now remember, but I don't remember the exact number. So this is good. We picked up the pace, and now, as mentioned, we're at the same levels with the order backlog as we were end of last year. We're healthy, just to add.
Okay, thank you.
... healthy across the board and, as commented, especially in Banking.
Got it. Thank you. That's all from my side.
The next question comes from Jaakko Tyrväinen from SEB. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. Most of my questions have all been asked and answered, but I could ask about the Create segment, which was relatively resilient, given the tough environment. Could you give some color on the MentorMate standalone performance since your acquisition? How the integration has performed, and then how the company has performed as a standalone?
Yeah, here we can comment that the integration has proceeded well according to the schedule and main objectives. We do not comment the sub-businesses in performance of Create. So we firmly believe in the opportunity to drive expansion in North America that we've talked about previously, and lots of work is being currently conducted to look at ways of expanding North America, preferably sooner than later, but naturally, little bit of a planning is required with the team.
Pretty a very high margin level, so then I—Okay, thank you very much. Then, if I may ask, a brief update on the Banking segment, and the internationalization plan over there or the process. For example, how has the partnership with IBM, if I recall correctly, you made a year or so ago, how that has been progressing?
So I think, first of all, as all recognized, that there are six businesses, one is Norway-centric. There are no specific big highlights. I think it's quite steady progress, and to be fair, I think those are part of the next chapters in Banking on looking at actually further ways of driving expansion. And during 2023, we made steps forward. I think in the future, there are likely even greater opportunities.
Okay, thank you. That's all from me. Some of the year here earlier on.
The next question comes from Aditya Buddhavarapu from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Aditya Buddhavarapu , Bank of America, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Hey, morning, Kimmo, Tommi. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, on Create, could you talk about what you think in terms of the demand environment or the tone of conversations with your clients, in terms of their budgets and spending intentions for the year, especially I think in the U.S., as you said, where you see some opportunities? Second, can you talk about how we should think about the phasing of growth during the year? So you already said Q1 should be the low point.
But, you know, with tougher comps and fewer working days, should we expect maybe a return to growth from Q2? And how should you think about the exit rate for the year in the context of, you know, that 0%-3% full year guidance? Maybe the same thing on the margins as well in terms of the phasing. Should that be probably even more weighted towards the second half this year, given what you said on the top line?
Okay, so let's take first the Create. So we are seeing a little bit of a mixed environment. I would anticipate that many in the industry likely see the same. So we are seeing pockets of opportunities, as commented earlier, tend to be with larger, more strategic engagement. And as recognized, we have some large ones and look for developing actually the more strategic relations in the future. We think that's the direction to be taken. And we do see fluctuation in certain markets, where the kind of. Even in the U.S., we see a little bit of dynamism between kind of cost savings, high degree of price competitiveness. And on the other hand, we are discovering opportunities. So it's a mixed environment.
I wouldn't further kind of analyze it, but at the end, it's a mixed environment. We are seeing it, and I think everybody in the digital engineering market would see the same. We are firmly considering our way forward, that we build resilience. We keep in mind the growth opportunity we have, and once the economy starts to bounce back, I look forward to being very active in grabbing market share. That would be the view.
Yeah, on the growth phasing of 2024, as we commented, Q1 will be the lowest quarter in terms of growth due to the comparables and the negative working days. Then the subsequent quarters, the working days will be primarily positive, not that much, but slightly, so that will help the normalizing of the growth trend. So we do expect from that H2 to be stronger than H1. Now, what will exactly happen in H2, the visibility isn't that great, as we have commented, so time will tell. On the margin side, we do see a similar trend from the top line as the top line, and good to remember that typically we do have a stronger profitability in H2 as in H1.
Great. Thanks. Maybe just a couple of follow-ups on the back of that. I mean, as you... if you start to see growth re-accelerating in the second half, I mean, how do you think about the hiring plans for the year, in that context? And maybe just on Banking and the margins there. So as you said, there's a few parts to it, but could you comment on, you know, why those margins are much lower than what you tend to see at other Banking software businesses? I understand there's maybe some element of services within that, but if you could just comment on that and maybe the scope for margins to improve there, over the midterm towards some of the software peers there.
Okay, let maybe we first take the hiring and, and the overall capacity. So we are fully prepared to adjust capacity, I believe that we are well used to adjusting capacity. And when we see the growth potential, it's a normal dialogue we have continuously with all the businesses: Which way are the volumes heading? How do we drive resilience? Are we keeping in mind the pockets of growth, and when to then begin the recruitment? And as hopefully recognized by many investors, that the foundation, as an example, in Create, and to be fair, for as well as for all businesses, the global delivery capacity we have covering China, India, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, as an example, so our opportunity to increase capacity when we see the growth. I expect us to be working very actively on this.
Great. And then on the Banking margins, if you could comment on that as well.
Yeah. So Banking margin, so you would say... Could you specify a bit further what was your practical question?
Yeah, sure. So, if you look at that margin there, it's at 12.4%. That is lower than what you typically tend to see across other Banking software peers in the space. So just trying to understand how much of that is due to the mix impact of revenues there. Maybe there's more of a services element or if there's any other difference in the scope for catch-up on the margins, you know, as that pursues a standalone path.
So maybe a couple of factors. I mean, one which are likely is well recognized, and we commented on that we have the bit of the extra operating costs resulting from the legal separation. That has been clearly on the table since Q2 of last year. And naturally, on your reflection, that then over time, it's a question of product mix, scalability of software, and to be... These are the underlying factors likely in your thinking as well, looking at the kind of fintech market as a whole on the foundation of scale of the technology itself, degree of SaaSification, and correlated to market expansion, driving healthier scale of new incoming volumes. So to be fair, these are naturally the opportunities then moving forward.
Great. Thank you.
It seems there are no further questions at this point. Thank you, everyone, for the questions. I will now hand over back to Kimmo for final remarks.
Very well. Thank you very much for joining today, and hopefully, everybody has gotten a very granular, transparent view. We had somewhat kind of good news on overall performance in this environment. The point being that resilience is a very important driver, high degree of attention on the strategic reviews, and solid progress, and naturally, today, important we share very transparently on the ransomware attack that has taken place in Sweden. Thank you very much for joining, and looking forward to staying in touch. Thank you.