Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Valmet's 2022 Result Publication Webcast. The highlights of the year included the finalization of the merger with Neles, which now means that Valmet's stable business consisting of Services and Automation was EUR 2.8 billion in terms of net sales. My name is Pekka Rouhiainen, I'm the Head of Investor Relations here at Valmet, and the speakers today are President and CEO Pasi Laine, as well as CFO Katri Hokkanen. After the presentations, you will have the chance to ask questions over the phone lines. Without further ado, Pasi, please go ahead.
Thank you, Pekka. Hello. Our headline is today that orders received increased to EUR 5.2 billion and Comparable EBITA to 533 million. I have the traditional agenda. First, 2022 in brief, then some words about the segments and business lines, then one page about Flow Control integration. Katri will go through the financial development, and I will then talk about dividend guidance and short-term market outlook. First, the year in brief. Orders received was EUR 5.2 billion, net sales EUR 5.1 billion, backlog ended to be EUR 4.4 billion, and like I said, our Comparable EBITA increased to EUR 533 million, and EBITA margin was 10.5%. Gearing in the end of the year was 20%.
Here are the same numbers in pictures as well. Last year we employed about 17,500 people. If we think about the net sales and divide that to segments. Little bit less than 50% came from Process Technologies. There is of course now change because of the merger with Neles. Services contributed to 32% and Automation segment to 20% of our net sales. Geographically, North America was strong, 21%, South America 14%, Europe, Middle East and Africa 37%, China 16%, and Asia Pacific 12%. Good and quite traditional contribution of the net sales between the areas. Here's the history graph, which we have been showing for some years now in Q4 call.
We started with orders received, somewhere EUR 2.5 , 3 billion level, now first time we are over EUR 5 billion, quite constant growth in orders received. Net sales has been growing even more steadily. We were at EUR 2.5 billion, now we have doubled that in nine years. Now we are a little bit over EUR 5 billion. Comparable EBITA has been improving EUR year after year. We started from EUR 50 million, now we ended up at EUR 533, constant improvement. Comparable EBITA margin has been developing every year, now there is exception, our EBITA margin went down even if Comparable EBITA was going up. Of course this is disappointment to us.
Of course, our target was to improve our Comparable EBITA margin as well, but this last year we didn't succeed on that. Our orders received has been increasing steadily. Here you see the graph. It has gone from this EUR 2.5 billion, and now the trend of last four quarters is at a little bit over EUR 5 billion level. Geographically, of course, in this graph, we are not comparing apples to apples. The year 2021 is without Flow Control, and 2022 has three quarters of Flow Control included. North America is big market for us, almost EUR 1.3 billion. South America last year a little bit less than in a good year, so EUR 350.
Europe continues to be strong, almost EUR 2.1 billion. China was performing well, EUR 711. Of course, there is some growth coming from Flow Control, but all in all, Chinese market was active last year again. Asia Pacific has been improving from EUR 544 to 771. All the areas with one ex-one exceptions, actually two exceptions, were growing. Three were growing, two not. Stable business orders received total a little bit over EUR 2.8 billion. When we started, we had Services with EUR 1 billion order intake, we acquired systems business. We have been growing organically Services and automation business, we've made the merger. Last year's order intake was a little bit over EUR 2.8 billion.
This is a good summary slide telling what kind of changes, what has been one of the changes that has happened in Valmet. We are of course very proud and happy of the organic development, merger development, and acquisition development. Backlog ended up to be EUR 4.4 billion. We are saying that about 65% comes from Process Technologies, Services 20%, and Automation 15%. We are also saying that about 75% of the backlog is currently expected to be realized as net sales during 2023. Last year, the same number was 70%. Some words about the segments and business lines. First, Services, which is a segment and business line. Order intake ended up at a little bit over EUR 1.7 billion. Nice growth in order intake.
Net sales grew also and was a little bit over EUR 1.6 billion. EBITDA in euros improved from EUR 204 to 237 million, and EBITDA margin last year was year before 2021 was 15%, and 2022, 14.8%. Our organization did very good work, like you all remember. Q1 was not that good, second was better, third one not that good, and now we are only 0.2% below in margin compared to the previous year. Good development and good work by Services business line and all the area organizations. We can happily tell that all the geographical areas were growing and all the business lines were growing. If we take the look at the business units, all the business units were growing earlier.
If we take a look at the business units, Performance Parts was about 35% of the orders received. Rolls, 17%, Fabrics, 13%, Board, Paper and Tissue Solution, 17%, and Pulp and Energy Solution, 18%. Roughly the same percentages than a year ago. Maybe some more small changes, but all business units have been grown. Geographically, North America was performing well and strong, so 34% of the orders came from North America. South America, China, and Asia Pacific are roughly the same size. If you take 10% out of EUR 1.7 billion, then you end up roughly at EUR 170 million level. We have about EUR 170 million order intake in all these three growing areas.
Europe was 37%, and in euros that was growing as well. Good performance in all the business unit and good performance in all the areas as well. In Automation segment, of course, the big change is that order intake was almost EUR 1.1 billion, and big change was, of course, the merger of Neles, merger with Neles. Net sales was a little bit over EUR 1 billion as well. Comparable EBITDA for the whole year, last year was EUR 79 million, of course, consisting only on Systems business then. Now we ended up in Comparable EBITDA of EUR 190 million. Last year, EBITDA margin was 19.2%, and this year, 18.3%. We are happy with the performance of Automation segment, both in Flow Control and in Systems business.
In Flow Controls, order intake in Valmet books was EUR 576 million, totally you can add a little bit less than EUR 200 million, you end up at total order intake, EUR 770. This is of course very good performance by Flow Controls. Net sales grew as well, in Valmet books, EUR 551 million, and before that in Neles books, EUR 166 million. Good growth both in order intake and in net sales. I'll come back to the integration later on. We are very happy with the performance of Flow Controls. In Flow Controls, about 68% of the business came from a business unit called MRO and Services. Valve Controls and Actuators brought 19%, Projects 13%.
This is the first time when you see the split between the business units in Neles, but that's how it's the business is now managed and that's the share of businesses based on the business unit structure. Customer segment-wise, about 26 came from pulp and paper, renewable energy and gases, seven, refining and chemical, 48, metals and mining, 10, and the rest of 10. By areas, North America was strong last year, and traditionally, it's also strong for Flow Control. Almost 40%, little bit over 30% from Europe, China, Asia-Pacific and South America, close to 10% all of them. In Systems business, we are proud to announce that order intake went over EUR 500 million first time ever.
Here you see the growth trend starting from 2016, and order intake has been growing with one exception every year. Now it ended up around EUR 505 million. Net sales grew also nicely, EUR 412 to 489 million. Nice development in Systems business as well. We are happy with the performance of Automation Systems. Here are the traditional graphs. Pulp and paper was 72%, and energy and process was 28%. Usually, this is about 30%-70%. Last year, pulp and paper activity was a little bit more than energy and process. In geographies, North America was strong here as well. Europe is always big. The rest of the areas, South America 6% and Asia-Pacific and China 9%.
In Process Technologies, our order intake dropped from the peak year to a little bit over EUR 2.3 billion. Now it's a second-best year in the history. It's a good year in order intake. Net sales has been growing steadily, last year it was a little bit over EUR 2.4 billion. EBITA, last year was EUR 175 million, now EUR 30 million less, EUR 145 million. EBITA margin has gone from 8.1% to 6.0%. The profitability is impacted, like we have been saying, with some selective pulp and energy projects where we have cost overruns. The same projects which we have earlier had. Now we have the full year picture, and last year's profitability, EBITA margin, it was 6% in Process Technologies.
If we take a look on business lines, Pulp and Energy business line, order intake a little bit less than EUR 1.1 billion, about almost, you know, EUR 90 million less than a year ago. At a, let's say, one could say normal level if you look at the graph there, which is telling the history. Net sales has been growing steadily, so net sales ended up at EUR 1.081 billion. Orders received-wise, energy was active, so 54% came from energy. We had one year when we went over almost at the same level or same level in order intake in energy. We had marine scrubber business booming.
If I remember correctly, we told that our marine business scrubber business order intake was roughly EUR 190 million. Last year, it was very marginal, so no material orders at all. Which now means that our boiler market has been active, and we have been very successful in boiler market. Where we haven't been successful is pulp. Our competitor has been winning more cases, but order intake has been there at a decent level in some of the business units. We have to accept that the fact that our competition has been stronger in pulp side. We have been a lot stronger in energy. Geographically, Europe has been big.
Asia-Pacific as well, and North America, South America and Chinese market haven't been active, or we haven't been successful in pulp cases on those areas. Paper business line, last year was very good order intake, over EUR 1.6, and now it's a little bit less than EUR 1.3 billion. I would say that this is a good level, order intake level for paper business line, good performance. Net sales has been growing nicely as well, we started from EUR 500 million and now the record is a little bit over EUR 1.3 billion. Good and constant development in paper business line.
Like you here see, our net sales was a little bit higher than order intake, which means now that we start to be on top of the backlog so that it's not growing and lengthening our delivery times even further. This is positive news that we have in paper business line, higher net sales than orders received. Business unit-wise, board was 74%, so majority of the business is coming from packaging applications. Paper was contributing 9% and Tissue 17%. The board market has been very active. Like we have been saying, tissue market has been satisfactory to us, and that has then resulted that order intake was only 17% of the total. Geographically, here always big changes depending where the projects are landing.
North America, good market for us, 21%. South America, not too much activity in 2022. Europe was strong. China was still strong, and Asia-Pacific was strong as well. Here the pie chart is changing quite a lot depending on in which land or country the big projects are landing. Some words about integration of Flow Control into Valmet. First of all, I want to say that integration is according to plan or maybe even a little bit better. We have now started to integrate the sales effort so that when we are offering Process Technologies and Services in selected cases, we are then including our valves into the package. Not in all, but it depends always on customer case and application.
We have done most of the synergy actions in functions, common locations and supply chain. We have been saying earlier that we expect about EUR 25 million annual run rate synergies, and we have been saying that about 60% of them will be achieved by end of 2023 and 90% by the end of 2024. Now we can tell that our orders received included about EUR 10 million synergy impact in 2022, so we are well developing that. You have to remember that Flow Control was only nine months with us, and then of course, in the beginning, it took a little bit time to get the machines synchronized.
Then we can tell that we have implemented a cost synergy action so that the annual rate is about EUR 12 million, out of which we are saying that roughly half was achieved already in as a realized cost saving in 2022. Integration is going according to plan or even a little bit better, and we have started, and we have seen already synergy benefits both in sales orders, sales, and in costs. Good. Now I'll let Katri to continue with the financial development.
Thank you, Pasi, hello everybody on my behalf as well. Before actually going into the financial development, I would like to thank all the Valmeteers for the year 2022. Thank you for your hard work. I also want to send a special thanks to my team globally for getting us to this point today that we can report the results. A few words about Q4 first. Our order intake increased to EUR 1.4 billion. Our net sales also increased to EUR 1.5 billion, and our order backlog was at EUR 4.4 billion. Our Comparable EBITDA increased to EUR 196 million or 12.7%, and gearing was 20% at the end of last year. Few words about the full year numbers.
Order intake was at the level of EUR 5.2 billion, that was 10% higher than a year ago in 2021. Backlog, as said earlier, was at the level of EUR 4.4 billion. There was 7% increase. Net sales was EUR 5.1 billion. There was 29% increase. Comparable EBITA was at the level of EUR 533 million or 10.5%. In millions of euros, we were EUR 104 million ahead of 2021. As Pasi said earlier, the margin was down by 0.4 percentage points. A few words also about segment key numbers. Starting from order intake, Q4, as said earlier, was at the level of EUR 1.4 billion. All of our segments increased during Q4 .
Then when looking at the full year numbers, Services was at the level of EUR 1.8 billion. There was 19% increase compared to 2021. Automation was at the level of EUR 1.1 billion, there we had now three-quarters of Flow Control. Then Process Technologies was at the level of EUR 2.4 billion, and there we had a decrease of 16%. Moving on to the net sales for fourth quarter, also all segments increased compared to the comparison quarter. When looking at the full year numbers, Services was EUR 1.6 billion, Automation EUR 1 billion, and Process Technologies EUR 2.4 billion. All of these increased compared to 2021. Then a few words about the profitability.
First Q4, Services was at the level of 18.7. That was a good achievement from the Services segment, considering that Q1 was below 10. During Q2 and Q3, we were around 14% level, now at 18.7. Automation was the highest this year. Sorry, last year, 21.4%. Process Technologies was at the level of 5.6. When looking at the full year profitability, Services 14.8, Automation segment was 18.3, Process Technologies at the level of 6%. As said earlier, EUR 533 miliion was the Comparable EBITA, out of which 80% was coming from the stable business.
Gross profit was EUR 1.2 billion at the end of last year, there was increase in millions of euros, but the profitability went down from 25%-24% level. SG&A was at the level of EUR 852, there was a big increase compared to 2021. Out of that increase, roughly 65% was coming from Flow Control, and the rest is then related to personnel cost increase, we have more people. There was also FX impact and more traveling. Few words also about the development over the years. Net sales has been developing quite nicely over the years. As Pasi said, the last year was the first year that we were above EUR 5 billion, and stable business net sales was at the level of EUR 2.6 billion.
Pasi also mentioned the Comparable EBITDA percentage, that it went down to 10.5%. This was the first year that we were not able to improve the margin, even if in millions of euros we improved. When looking at our financial targets, it is unchanged. We are targeting to be between 12%-14% and continue the hard work towards that target. When looking at the cash flow, that was EUR 36 million at the end of last year. There was a big drop compared to 2021. Of course, 2020 and 2021 have been kind of exceptionally high numbers when it comes to cash flow. This change is coming from the change in Net Working Capital. When looking at the Net Working Capital profile, it has changed after Flow became part of Valmet.
I already said this last time that if we would have had Flow Control as part of us the whole time, we roughly estimate that Net Working Capital would have been on the level of -7%. Now when looking at last year's number, we were at -2%, so clearly below that, being at -82%. There are three items which contributed to this decline. First is related to inventory. This one we have been discussing already in the earlier quarters that our inventory levels have gone up. This is partly explained by Flow Control, but we have also increased the inventories in legacy Valmet to be able to deliver to our customers. The second topic impacting this was trade receivable.
We had very high invoicing month in December, that then increased the trade receivables. Of course, that is something that then we expect to collect early this year. The third item was related to customer advances. In 2022, we had less customer advances than in 2021. Those were the credence impacting the cash flow and also the Net Working Capital. Net Debt was at EUR 502 million at the end of last year, and our Gearing was 20%, so no big changes there. We have now added a new ratio to the presentation material, it's this Net Debt to EBITDA ratio, and that was 0.78 at the end of last year.
Capital employed was at the level of EUR 3.3 billion, no changes to previous quarter. There is an increase of EUR 1.5 billion, and that is related to the merger of Neles. Our Comparable Return on Capital Employed was at the level of 17%. Our financial target is to be at least 15%. Last but not least, Adjusted Earnings Per Share. This is without the business combinations. Last year we were at 2.37. It has increased compared to 2021. This was my part of the presentation. Thank you. I will give the floor back to Pasi.
Thank you, Katri. Seems that Katri talks faster and more precisely than I, so I have to speed up as well my presentation skills. I'll go through the dividend proposals, guidance, and short-term market outlook. First, the dividend proposal. Like you know, our policy is that dividend payout should be at least 50% of the net profit. Now our board of directors have decided to make a dividend proposal to the AGM in a way that we would be paying EUR 1.30 per dividend per share, which represents about the 68% payout ratio. Here you have then the graph showing how the dividend has been developing from EUR 0.15, and now the proposal is EUR 1.30.
We haven't added here in the slide, but we are proposing also that the dividend is paid in two installments, so one in spring and one in autumn to make the cash flow management easier in Valmet. EUR 1.30 is the dividend proposal to AGM. Our guidance and short-term market outlook. This time we are saying that Valmet estimates that the net sales in 2023 will increase in comparison with 2022, and Comparable EBITDA in 2023 will increase in comparison with 2022. Both guidance are increased. Short-term market outlook. Services, we keep the good status. Like you have seen, order intake has been developing well, which means that we have good capacity utilization and current market activity is still good.
In Flow Control, same reasons, good order intake and market activity continues to be good. Automation Systems business the same, good market activity and good order intake last year. In Pulp and Energy, same story. We have units where we have good utilization, a good backlog, and then we have one unit where the situation is not that good, and that's why it's good slash satisfactory. Energy order intake has been good, and market activity continues to be good. Packaging and Paper order intake has been good. There's still plenty of projects active. Tissue, order intake wasn't that good last year and we keep then the satisfactory outlook for short-term market outlook for Tissue. That's the guidance and short-term market outlook.
Thanks, Pasi. We are now ready to move on to the Q&A session then. We will be taking questions over the phone lines. Once we are ready.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Antti Kansanen from SEB. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. First one is on the services and kind of the order growth that you saw on Q4 and kind of the demand outlook. I mean, the growth was 5% in comparable FX, so I'd assume that it's fully driven by pricing, but the outlook remains good. Could you maybe elaborate what did you see geographically or different type of services in Q4 and kind of what is the outlook there going into first half this year?
That was a good question. We saw good market activity in... Katri correct if my answer is not correct. We saw good market activity in all the areas, the same goes actually with all the business units. I wouldn't say that we had seen any difference compared to the whole year results and outlook.
Okay. Then the kind of the Process Tech margins and the issues that you have had with the project, is it any way possible to quantify kind of the revenue impact this year from those projects relating to or in comparison to 2022? I mean, just trying to get how much of those projects are still ongoing this year compared to how much they impacted last year's numbers.
Yeah. That's a difficult one to answer.
Yeah.
You know, it's with. Of course, we know the backlog numbers and how much, but, we have been saying all the time that it's selected projects in Pulp and Energy segment. First you can take paper away from that calculation, and then you can think that it's selected, so it can't be maturity, and then you can. But I can't give too accurate answer on that. Maybe the best is that I continue with the message we have had earlier, and we have been saying that it's selected projects in Pulp and Energy.
Okay. There's kind of like no communication on when those projects are due to be finalized or anything like that?
No. No. No, we can't communicate that.
Okay. Then perhaps a follow-up on the Process Tech. I mean, the backlog is a bit down, but obviously from a very elevated level. Is it kind of getting back to normal or is there some point of concern about kind of a capacity utilization, or do you have enough workflow going forward? How would you look at that? I know it's a mixture of different businesses and probably quite uneven situation, but how should we think about kind of...
No
... kind of the volume impacts?
No. We have one business unit where we have not that good work situation, but it's a small one, and then the rest they have good workload.
All right. And maybe-
And like-
Maybe the last one.
Like you said.
Yeah
like I said also, it's good that the backlog is getting a little bit down especially in port side. It means that our delivery times start to be more competitive again.
Okay. Okay. Then the last one actually to Katri regarding your financial expenses this year. I mean, you have roughly EUR 700 million in debt. Well, how should we think about how much will that cost you in 2023 if the interest rate's going up? How's the structure on that debt?
When looking at the interest, of course, it's probably better to look at the net debt, that was EUR 502 million. Now at the end of last year, our average interest rate was 2.3%, there was 1% increase compared to Q3 . Clearly the interest has a little bit increased. Of course, if this continues, it will have an impact, but of course we are playing with the fixed and floating interest rates. That's one way of handling it. With this level, I think that we are not worried about the situation.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Mikael Doepel from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. First a question on order intake heading into this year. Now, what are your expectations there overall if you think about new equipment and aftermarket businesses separately? Are you seeing any hesitations out there given the macro headwinds?
We are giving the market outlook with the business or the segments what we told and like we said or like I said, we are still seeing good activity in stable business, in Services, in Flow Control and Automation. In Pulp it's good / satisfactory and Energy and Packaging and Paper are good, and Tissue is satisfactory. We are not guiding the order intake for the whole year and not more specifically, but for coming six months, this is our view how the market is saying. Hesitation, we haven't seen increasing hesitation. In our pipeline, we always have Certain amount of projects and some of them customers are delaying, some they are speeding up, and some are going according to their plans.
We haven't seen any, actually change compared to the normal situation now in our capital or Process Technologies, sales pipeline.
Okay. In terms of productivity, I guess you talked about your margins going down in 2022. You're citing supply chain issues and weaker productivity. I was just wondering, are you able to quantify what kind of an impact the weaker productivity actually had on your earnings and margins last year, and if you would expect that to reverse this year?
Of course, internally we have analyzed many things. Productivity is maybe it's. In gross profit, of course, the inflation had maybe bigger role than productivity and then cost inflation both in materials and labor and logistics and so on. For coming year, of course, people are reading newspapers and they can see that there's some discussion that logistics prices might drop at some point of the year and maybe even raw material prices. Next inflationary topic is more the salary inflation and the impacts of it. We are working on, of course, all these fronts to make sure that our gross profit would go up, but last year it didn't. Katri, do you want to add something?
I think you nailed it.
Yeah. Yeah.
well. It's exactly like that. Yes.
Okay. Okay. No, well, that's clear. Just finally, just wondering, you know, given the opening up in China, are you having a decent exposure? Just wondering if you can say anything about what you're seeing on the ground in China right now in terms of activity and also in terms of the project pipeline. I guess there are a few bigger integrated packaging units planned, and are these moving ahead now?
Last year our order intake in services was developing well, like you can calculate from percentages. Even if there was COVID and COVID limitations, capital market was active last year as well. We are still a little bit above the normal, if you can have a normal Chinese market. Chinese market has been last three years good for us. Now the sentiment is more positive. Of course people are there somehow relieved that the normal life comes back and people can travel and meet with each other and go to restaurants. When talking with our Chinese team, they are happy now.
All right. Good. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Sven Weier from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions as always. The first one partly is around the revenue and the EBIT guidance for this year. There's still a bit of a sizable impact from the one additional quarter from Neles. I mean, would you also be happy to say that you expect the company to grow organically on both items?
I think it's rules are saying that company can give only one guidance. Company is giving only one guidance. As total Valmet is giving it guidance that net sales will increase and EBITDA will increase. Sorry, Sven, but I can't open that more.
Yeah, it's fine. I was kind of expecting that answer. That's okay. Worth a try always. Maybe on the second one, you can be a little bit more detailed because I was wondering on the Stora project in Oulu, I hope I pronounced that correctly, I was a bit surprised with the order size you had announced related to the project given that the total project size is EUR 1 billion. I mean, are you expecting more business potential from that mill or is that basically it?
No
what you have announced?
No, no, it's maybe not our normal. We have announced the orders, what we are getting from Oulu. We got.
I got it.
Yes.
There's no more...
No, no.
... that we know.
Of course, some small ones, but not that ones that we that size, sizable that we would make a announcement.
Okay. Thank you. The other one is a follow-up question to the process technology margin. Is it still fair to assume that there is still an impact this year, but the impact is smaller than it was in 2022 from those problems we talked about in the Q&A?
No, I'm not giving a direct answer to that, but I'll come back to our earlier statement that once Valmet's targets to reach higher profitability, all the business lines have to improve. Automation has to improve. Services has to improve and Process Technologies have to improve. Are we able to do it this year? I can't promise that, but of course our goal setting has to be that all the business lines are improving. Otherwise, we couldn't be saying that our EBITDA guidance is that EBITDA will increase.
Okay. The final one is just on the pulp greenfield pipeline, how you look at that? You already mentioned that last year, the peer was a bit more successful, but how do you see the pipeline in general? Is it still a reasonably good one, or now with, I mean, pulp prices going down a bit, has there been any change?
No. No, the pulp, the pulp business, people are paying a lot of attention to mega mills, and we traditionally haven't been listing the mega mills. Our dear friends might be listing them. We haven't. I would assume that some bigger, mega mill cases, if we decide it will be in latter part of the year. One has to remember that in pulp side, pulp business there are also island decisions. Somebody wants to build a new recovery boiler or increase the fiber line or build a new cooking line and so on, and that's the market where from last year we got that, order intake what we got. That market continues to be active.
For us to have a good business, we can't base that on the thinking that there has to be a mega mill every year.
Thank you, Pasi.
Thank you, Sven.
The next question comes from Panu Laitinmäki from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
First on the competition, I mean, you commented that in the pulp side competitor was maybe more successful and it seems that in the Stora Enso side Voith got the bigger order. Can you kind of comment, is it more like pricing why competition has won these orders or what was the kind of final reason for this?
All in all in board side, our hit ratio last time against dear friends from Germany was about 70%, and sometimes you lose project. We can't of course open why we lost it, but of course we have had good discussions with Stora Enso why we, why they selected somebody else. That happens in the business and. Generally, hit ratio has been about 70% for us against Voith.
In the pulp side?
Pulp, pulp side, we got good size business there in all.
All right. Thanks. Secondly, on Services margin, it was up clearly from previous year. The question is basically was Q4 2021 already impacted by the inflation since we haven't seen the like earlier quarters? I mean, is it like above normal levels in Q4 2022 or was it like just recovery after inflation?
I would look at it so that it has been a development over the years. Q4 margin was lower than this year. Of course, there was the low margin in Q1, we have been improving again. We have been increasing the prices. We have said also earlier that we were maybe a little bit late with increasing the prices, and that was visible earlier this year in our results.
All right. Thanks. On the receivables, like they increased, was there anything special related to like timing of sales or where did the increase come from?
It came from many fronts. We had a very high invoicing month in December. That was clearly visible and it is in our current receivables. It was very active December, let's put it that way.
All right. Then finally on Neles or Flow Control, I think the split of orders that you showed was quite interesting. Pulp and Paper was only like 25% if I remember correctly, and then clearly the biggest part came from refining and, and chemicals. Can you talk about like what are you seeing in there and where is the growth coming from and kind of, how do you see the different end markets?
Actually it's quite normal. If I remember correctly, at highest pulp and paper has been now 29% in the order intake. 26% is good taking into account that the total amount was growing. I'm not calculating my head, but I actually would assume now that 26% is bigger number than year before 29% in absolute terms. Flow Control has been doing good work on that front as well. Otherwise, this is telling quite well in where we are and where the growth. Growth can come still in Paper, and we have been saying that Flow Control can increase their market presence in Board and Tissue. An interesting case is the gases.
Metals and mining as well. I'm sure that, in our Capital Markets Day, Simo will open the growth avenues even more. If it's okay that this time I'm just telling that we try to grow in all these segments.
All right. That's clear. Thanks.
The next question comes from Tomi Railo from DNB. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Tomi from DNB. Also trying to ask about the profitability and the underperforming projects. Just simply, it must be fair to assume that the share of revenues is smaller this year compared to last year.
Now you all try to now put us to answer something what we have been reluctant to answer. Tomi, the same question answer continues that we have selected projects where there are cost overruns in Pulp and Energy.
Okay. Another way to ask, would you be able to comment the overall order backlog quality from the profitability point of view? Is it better or similar than starting last year?
We are happy with the order backlog quality.
Yes. Yes. It's on a good level, EUR 4.4 billion. It's over EUR 300 million higher than a year ago. Of course, it's good to also mention that we have 35% of stable business in the backlog, and that is more than what we had in 2021. I agree with Pasi.
Okay. Then, energy really could uptick almost EUR 600 million orders, as Pasi said, above the previous peaks, which included the scrubbers. Do you have any capacity limitations on that side, or is it really in a way shared with the pulp and so on? Can you continue to grow orders in energy?
Energy business unit is sharing the capacity with recovery boilers, which is part of the Pulp side. I think our capacity starts to be very well utilized there. In energy side, it's easier to outsource manufacturing, but then at some point of time becomes the limitation of project management and engineering capability. I think we start to be at very high level from organization load point of view. Katri, you have been there as a....
Yes
...controller.
Yes. Yes.
Do you want to correct my statement?
Yes. No, I don't want to correct your statement. You are absolutely right, and you know the business as well.
You know it better.
Yeah.
Mm.
Yeah. Exactly as you said, that we cross-utilize the resources. Yes.
Finally, group costs jumped in Q4 at least. Any color you could give for this year for the group costs?
Yes. The other was EUR 39 million, there was increase as you said, and we have more people there now. There has been some increase in the personnel cost, and we will do our best to keep it roughly on the same level. I think that's fair to say.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Johan Eliason from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hello, it's Johan here at Kepler Cheuvreux. Just coming back to the pulp side again. You mentioned you have been losing some share. You've gone for the island, mid-sized orders rather than the big greenfields. I think some time ago, Pasi, you sort of mentioned now with Neles you're a bigger company, you might take on risk and then go for the greenfields as well. Have anything changed there regarding your strategy?
No. We have been doing greenfields early as well, and like currently we are doing one very big greenfield project with Metsä in Finland and in South America we have been doing several of them. Of course, we go after them. In the future we have been going after them. We haven't been, during last two years, as successful as Andritz. Of course then we want to be successful in the future. Of course now when Valmet's EBITA is over EUR 500 million, then of course our capability to take calculated risks is higher. Of course we want to say to the investors as well that we are not making any stupid decisions now because we are bigger company.
Of course we will be very careful with our decision-making in the future as well. I think this one sentence what I said last time has been little bit overquoted by many people. It was one sentence in one sentence. Of course we are careful. Of course we want to increase our market share in pulp.
Okay, excellent. on profitability, I mean, we learned about this excellent profit improvement in the Automation Systems business since you took it over from Metsä two years ago. Now, obviously we see it down year-over-year, which is clearly the Neles impact in Q4 and on the full year I suppose. Would you say the Automation Systems margins, have they improved further or have they also slowed sort of on a standalone basis?
Difficult question to answer. We opened the system business profitability last year, I'm not allowed to tell the business line profitability for systems or Flow Control, but I would say that last year's profitability in Automation Segment was actually quite good, but of course they should continue to improve the profitability as well.
Okay. Then coming back to the interest comment, you said 2.3% now at the end of the quarter. I think previously Katri sort of alluded to the fact that you had a big cash position that wasn't yielding any interest income at all, that's why your interest rate looked or interest net looked a little bit high. How is it today? I mean, are you your cash position, is that yielding anything or should we just calculate the costs on the debt?
When you look at the overall, you should look at the Net Debt. Of course, we have had a strong cash at the end of last year, almost EUR 300 million. We also gained the interest, you should look at the Net Debt.
Okay, excellent. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Antti Kansanen from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking a follow-up. It's on the Pulp and Energy side where we now see this kind of a mix shift from pulp towards energy. Could you on a general level, talk a little bit about profitability differences on those two businesses? If you do an energy project, is it materially different than the pulp side or fairly same type of margin? Is there any impact on profitability from this shift?
As an average, the same, and some years energy is better than pulp less, and some years the other way around. As, as a rule of thumb, it's the same.
Okay. You kind of just ensure the workload on the boiler side and then similar type of project modules.
The customers tend to squeeze with the same pressure on both businesses.
Okay. Thank you. That's all.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Mikael Doepel from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Just a brief follow-up coming back to your commentary around margins. I'm just wondering if you can talk a bit more about the headwinds and tailwinds going into this year. I mean, you mentioned the order backlog having a bigger share of stable business, so that's suggest there's be a bit of a mix improvement perhaps supporting margins. I was also wondering to what extent there is still a catch-up effect coming from pricing versus costs, or are you in fact already seeing pricing ahead of cost in the year? Maybe if you could talk a bit about the headwinds and tailwinds for margin. Thanks.
Katri, do you want to take this?
Well, if I start, of course, maybe the one question more for this year is related to the salary cost inflation and that impact on the cost level. Maybe that's one thing at least to mention. Do you wanna add something here?
No. Then on the other side might be that logistic costs-
Yeah, manage-
are going.
Yes
... going down.
Yeah. Yes.
So-
Both trends.
Mm-hmm.
Do you feel comfortable with your current pricing in the order backlog to handle these changes to cost inflation then?
You never feel comfortable. Of course we are comfortable enough. There will be a lot of work is needed, like was last year as well. The same kind of work continues that we will have somewhere some cost increases and we have to compensate them from somewhere else. Normal management is needed. Nothing special.
Fair enough. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Tom Skogman from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. This is Tom from Carnegie. I have a couple of questions starting with kind of the market sentiment. I mean, I'm sitting next to our pulp and paper analyst in our office, you know, and, you know, things are getting much worse for your customers at the moment and you have a very long experience, both of you from this industry. You know, how long can the downturn be without that really starting to impact customer negotiations and confidence to go ahead with the project? Is it, you know, if the downturn in pulp and wood prices are longer than one year, would that start to have an impact or so?
Yeah. It's like, okay, the same. Some of the European or we have been focusing a little bit on our own numbers so I haven't had time to analyze globally what our customers have been announcing. Some of our European customers have now announced that the demand was weak in Q4 . When discussing with some customers, they have been saying that they see that the market will pick up somewhere in latter part of the first half. When you think of... Then, of course, I haven't been yet following what happens in Latin America and China and North America with the results. Too early to say that.
When thinking about the investments, our customers are looking for the long-term growth of the market and that's deciding whether they invest or not. Short-term, everybody knows that there's fluctuation of market. My view is still on the positive side.
Okay. In, in the service, I mean, we saw during the pandemic that you were not allowed to visit some customers and then we had a very high, you know, board price last year, and also on the pulp side the price was very high. I guess a lot of modernization projects have not kind of went ahead that have been planned for several years. Do you see kind of pent-up demand in service that could be realized now when the heat is off for your customers?
In pent-up demand we have been saying that maybe limitations also this pent-up demand will not materialize as a peak in order intake because customers have limited resources, and we have limited resources. We have been trying to say that, at first there was a level, but then business went down and then it came back. This kind of pent-up peak after was a little bit lower period is not possible because there's customers don't have unlimited resources and we don't have unlimited resources either.
All right. I wonder about capital allocation. When you start to kind of turn your Net Working Capital into cash, you will soon have a very strong balance sheet and a strong cash flow again. The question is, I mean, given you have so high market shares in the kind of project business, is it so that acquisitions, you know, will focus now on Flow Control and Automation companies? I mean, I realize you want to buy service companies if there, if something is available, but, you know, you have tried that for the last 10 years, you know, so. This is a new opportunity when you have Neles now as part of the company. Will capital allocation focus more and more on the Automation and Flow Control business?
Katri can comment the other parts, but if I'll comment the acquisitions. We continue to work on all these three lines, Process Technologies, Services and Automation, and we somehow internally keep all of them at the same level. The one who has good idea and can bring a good opportunity will be supported and let's see where we can find good and suitable acquisition targets earliest. Like, you know, it takes several years to develop the cases, so it's not something that you have money and then you buy something. It can be that an acquisition process takes three to four years. It's long-term activity and all the corners of the triangle will be supported.
Yeah. Yeah.
There is no kind of strategy to further strengthen the automation flow control where you have a much lower market share than in...
Of course we want to strengthen it, I don't want to send a message that we strengthen that and neglect the opportunities in Services or Process Technologies. Of course, if there are opportunities, good opportunities, then of course we'll strengthen our Automation business. No question about that.
All right. Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Pekka will tell the closing comment but first time when it has taken over one hour, so maybe my presentation was long. Thanks for very good activity and thanks for very good questions.
Yeah. All right. Thanks also from my behalf. The next event for Valmet will be the Capital Markets Day that will take place on March 8 here in Espoo. Welcome everybody. We distributed the formal invites today, please register and come to see the Capital Markets Day. After that, Q1 results will be published on April 26 . Thanks for the active Q&A and have a nice rest of the week for everybody.