Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the interim report for Itera, the last quarter, fourth quarter, and also the full year 2024. As you know, we normally have two takes, one in Norwegian and one in English. Now we are actually having just one take, and this is only in English. First of all, I think the agenda is more or less the same as previous, but of course, we will also look at how we can maybe change the format going forward. For this session, there will be some questionnaires so that you can also, of course, post some questions. I think also next time we will try to make it even more interactive. Let's just continue the change for this time, having only one version in English. I will start with the highlights of the quarter and also walk through the business review.
Then Bent Hammer, Chief Financial Officer, will look into the financial review and have some comments about the outlook. As I said, you can also post some questions during the session. We will have an interactive session and look at the questions that you have posted. Of course, we are also available after this session if there are any kind of more specific meetings or walkthrough that you would like to have. Okay, let's move into the highlights for the fourth quarter. I just want to mention three topics in the beginning. One is about what we have talked a lot about, this kind of engagement in Ukraine. We have established a new service offering. We call it Enter Ukraine with Itera.
During the last 12 months, we are working quite hard in order to mobilize more and more businesses to look at opportunities in Ukraine. We are navigating, doing a lot of business advisory and facilitating a lot of meetings with potential buyers in Ukraine. For this quarter, we are very happy to make an announcement that we've managed to do a very interesting project for Bergen Engines that provides gas turbines to Ukraine because there is a demand for electricity, as you are already in the newspaper. Of course, this is one of the proofs that we are showing that in this case, we have been working more or less for 12 months in order to make this as a successful project. We have more and more opportunities going in that space.
For the first time, we are also providing services into Ukraine and not only as a supply of resources out of Ukraine. That is one of the topics you will hear more about going forward. Of course, the second topic, I just want to also make sure that you know that, of course, frame agreement is extremely important for Itera. This quarter, we are very happy to announce that we also have made another three year framework agreement with Gensity, one of the larger customers of Itera, who has been there for many years. We are very happy for having extension to that contract for another three years. The third, but not the least, last important topic is actually we talked about in the previous quarter that we were opening a new office in Rogaland through two smaller acquisitions that made.
All these acquisitions are fully integrated into the operating model as in Itera. We are very happy to see how we have been progressing this new opening of an office in Stavanger. It is actually strengthening our position in the western part of Norway. We are also seeing a lot of benefits also in terms of sales pipeline. We also closed several orders together from this office in Rogaland. If I look at the figures for the first quarter in brief, we have a decrease of 4% in revenue. That is one of the headlines. We, of course, will go into more in detail. We have adjusted EBIT margin of 5.6% in this quarter. If I look at the market, I think we are seeing it has been quite challenging, I will say, the five, six last quarters. We are coming from almost 30% growth.
We have a negative growth. That has been also connected with what we discussed in the third quarter, that one of the larger customers of Itera was changing the partner. Of course, we managed also to win back that customer. That also had some gradual effect from mid-November. It has had some impact on the revenue growth. For going forward, we also look at the market that is turning into an established market. We also see some growth trends in the market as such. If I look at the order intake, I will say it's a very strong order intake with a book to bill of 1.4 in the first quarter and 1.1 for the last 12 months. In general, I think the company has really improved our sales activities and moved a lot of activities, internal activities to approach the customer.
I really see the pipeline visibility has really improved a lot the last, I will say, two quarters. We are quite optimistic about also the pipeline going forward into 2025. As mentioned, the business advisory service under Enter Ukraine with Itera has already started to yield results with several new agreements. That's very important that we managed to turn this into business. As I also mentioned earlier, the Rogaland office has been very successful with the integration. We also see a very strong pipeline development based on that region. If I look at the performance in terms of constant currency, it's about a 3% decrease. We see also some improvement in the utilisation. It's still too low compared to what it was in the past, but we see gradual improving of also the utilisation. The cash flow is always strong from Itera, I will say is NOK 45 million in the fourth quarter and NOK 74 million in 2024.
Of course, we have a very, very strong EBITDA to cash conversion of 91%. That means also that we continue to make dividend payouts. There is a supplementary dividend for 2023 of NOK 0.20 per share that was paid in December. Totally in 2024, it was actually paid out for NOK 0.60 per share. The board has also proposed a new dividend for 2024 of NOK 0.20 and also potential additional dividends in 2025. If you look at the people dimension, we have now increased sequentially the number of employees by 26 since the third quarter. These are the figures itself, decrease of 4% in the fourth quarter in average for the full year, 3%. We have also adjusted what we call the right size, the number of employees. It is - 4%.
That is also part of the business we have. We have quite many locations. We have the flexibility to increase and also reduce the number of employees. That is something that we are also looking at. Of course, we do not want to downsize the business too much because it also costs a lot to build it up again. That is why we think we have done this in a quite balanced way. Also, if you look at the EBIT margin, in this software market, I think it is acceptable for the 5.6%. Of course, we are not satisfied with that in general, but we also have adjusted the business in order to the software market that seems to also be improving going forward. For the full year, the EBIT margin in 2024 was 6.2%. Okay, that is the highlights for the first quarter.
Let's go into the business review session. I just want to put this in place because, of course, we are especially sustainable digital transformation. Of course, that has been our positioning with a full range of services. We have a very customer-centric strategy. In this, you see that we have 15 offices and we are delivering services to about 20 countries around the world. The model that we have established is actually very strong because we can build teams, combine companies from different locations, and provide this in a very unified way. Normally, we are providing services to clients based in the Nordics with people also from Central and Eastern Europe. As I also mentioned, we are also turning the Central and Eastern Europe into opportunities in the go-to-market.
As I mentioned, the Enter Ukraine with Itera program is actually that we are helping customers to also enter this market, this opportunity, this new market that will arise by providing services into Ukraine. That is also a growth opportunity in Itera because we are quite well established. As you know, this model has been developed over years. In 2028, we were recognized as best in the world by Global Sourcing Association. In case we talked about this customer that we initially lost in the third quarter that was coming back, I think that was a very strong footprint because some of the customers are looking at Itera as a Nordic player. That was a customer with a very strong international footprint. They tried to use the international player to go also into the Nordic market.
In this case, we managed to win back the customer because of this recognition, I will say, that we were best in the world in terms of distributed model. It is not only about size, it is also not at least about the culture. I think that is one of the strengths of Itera that we have built this company according to one model. Also, the scalability of Itera going forward, be able to work with Nordic-based clients and also provide services into any locations where they belong. I just want to mention because we have talked a lot about digital transformation, there is also business transformation going on. A lot of customers have a lot of legacy IT. That is one of the changes in their business that they also need to look at, how could they transform the legacy into more a modernised platform.
Not at least that will also be accelerated through AI because they are actually driving this business transformation and this digital transformation at a much higher pace than they believed in the past. There is a lot of focus in the businesses on how to really come into a more cloud-based operating model because that is of course important when you are trying to utilise AI as one of the new drivers or levers for this kind of change in terms of business and IT. I think this is just to also show you because there has been a lot of discussion also in terms of expectation for AI. Of course, AI has a high expectation, but it is not only about technology. This is actually also about how not at least provide business value.
You need to look at where and how data and AI will create value and what kind of ambitions and targets that you set for your company. That is one aspect of this kind of holistic way that you need to look into. Another one is actually the operating model and the governance model will also be changed. It is new roles, responsibility, processes, whatever. Not at least also the competence and the culture. The data quality, you know, the shit in, shit out is a part of what you know about. Not at least also utilise an AI is more or less the same that you also need to have data quality and also access to your data in order to get the value of utilising artificial intelligence. You have the ethical and the social responsible use of it.
You need to also look into that. You also talked about technology, infrastructure and tools. Of course, you need to apply the cloud platform if you have a lot of legacy, as I mentioned on the previous slide. There is a long, you know, to make some steps in order to your technology platforms to make it even available in terms of data and all the tooling that are also in the cloud operating environments. The last but not least, you need to also ensure that the organizational adoption of this kind of new technology and model itself are really put into use by the end user and also into the processes. Altogether, you look at the seven items here that I mentioned. Itera, because of our full range of services, are able to support any customer in this kind of transformation.
We have several customers that are starting on this transformation. As I said, we also are very happy to see that the value of applying AI is also even more and more visible for the customers. I think also the trends coming forward that this will also trigger the transformation that I mentioned from the legacy to digital platforms, like especially the cloud you need to use, and not at least also changing the business environment itself. Just to also look at some of the cases here, as I mentioned, If has been a customer for Itera for decades. It actually started in 1998. We are very happy. I think that's also some part of the quality that Itera delivered that we are very long-standing customers. This is one of the customers who have been there for a very long time.
Of course, we have a lot of competition every once, maybe three or five years. In this case, we managed also to increase or extend this contract for another minimum three years. We have been supporting If in their digital transformation journey, enabling substantial advancements in automation and service delivery within the Nordic insurance market. As you know, If has been very successful and also recognized globally for having some of the most outstanding digital claim solutions. Itera has really together with If been part of this team. We are very happy to look at the value together with Ukraine that with If we have managed to create together. If is an important customer. I am very happy to look at how we also extend the partnership for at least three more years. Another one, as I mentioned, the Bergen Engines.
This is more showing some more details about what we are doing in this case, working for 12 months, whatever, in order to position the products and services in a quite complex Ukrainian market and also secure the funding for these engines. You know, in total, Bergen Engines is providing 160 MW of electricity by these engines. If you look at these kind of efforts, it is actually addressing the human material energy needs for approximately 1.5 million people in some part of the Dnipro region this winter. Of course, this has a big impact for Ukraine. It also has a very interesting look at how we are also contributing to the new resilient and more, let's say, distributed energy system in Ukraine that has really been hit by all the missiles from Russia.
This is one example of how Itera is working through the business advisory. It's a very hard work by a very dedicated team together with Bergen Engines. We also have other customers that go in the same direction. I also want to mention, as you might remember, in June 2024, we were recognized as one of 10 companies globally by this international flagship award that has contributed mostly to the business, you know, creating business in Ukraine and also, you know, invite more and more business to look at opportunities in Ukraine. This is another award that we achieved by the United Nations Sustainability Award in the fourth quarter for our Itera Employee Foundation. We were one of the finalists in this competition.
We were recognized for all the collective efforts we have done for businesses and governance and civil society to build a better future for Ukraine. I think if you look at the geopolitical situation, as you know, all about from Trump, etc., and also protecting the values and the democracy, I think this really has some impact because we need to stand up with Ukraine. This is another initiative that we are doing as a part of our corporate social responsibility. I'm very happy to look at and see how our Head of Ukraine, Oleksandr Storokova, and the team there has been appreciated by all the efforts that they have done for Ukraine the last three years. I'm very proud of how the company is working and really standing together with Ukraine. Okay, let's go back to look at the order intake.
As I said, it's very solid in this quarter. Normally, the fourth quarter is the best one. As I said, I see there is higher visibility in the pipeline. 1.4 in the fourth quarter and 1.0 for the last 12 months in terms of book to bill, I think is quite strong. I'm very happy to see that. Also, if you look at the customer mix, what I just want to put your attention on, if you look at the share of new customers, you see that there is 86.5% of existing customers. The 13.5% which are coming from new customers, that means customers that we didn't have 12 months ago. We are really increasing the number of customers. That's good. You also look at the top 30 customers for Itera, it actually represents 77% of the total revenue.
I think that's also quite an interesting strength that we managed to establish more customers into Itera. We also have, you know, a stronger growth platform because of the, you know, stabilisation of the demand increase for some of the largest ones. That's why we are looking at other customers. We have a stronger customer base to scale or to grow the company. New customers represented almost NOK 29 million in this quarter. Let me also finish with my presentation and look at the number of employees. It's 725 at the end of 2024. That's down by 33 people the last 12 months. In general, I think that's quite, that's what we call the right sizing. We have managed to keep the company ready for continued growth. Of course, we need to adjust something.
Of course, we are also looking at opportunity because we are open also these offices, as I mentioned, in Rogaland, despite the softer market. Now we are really looking at, we are quite established, it's a very strong platform, of course. Not at least I'm very happy to see all the efforts that Itera are doing in terms of increasing the pipe and also having much more dialogue with the customer. Also there are a lot of new opportunities that are coming in. I'm really quite optimistic about the pipeline development going forward. I think that was all from my side. Let's look into the financial review, Bent.
Thank you. Thank you.
It's actually a happy Valentine's to do today.
Not between us, but good morning, everybody.
Yeah, as Arne mentioned, we had a slight decrease in our revenue this quarter, down 4% from the year before. This was due to us coming into the quarter with very soft utilisation, as we lost some major engagements during the third quarter that threw up the tender process. However, midway through the quarter, we managed to win this engagement back as the customer decided that they wanted to recover our services as they were not happy with our successor there. That improved the utilisation towards the end of the quarter, but still some softness in the quarter overall. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 9.4% in the quarter and our adjusted EBIT NOK 11.9 million or a 5.6% margin.
The adjustment that we made is that we had to make a write-off of an investment we made in 2023 into a partnership that unfortunately proved not to be sustainable. Our reported EBIT for the quarter was NOK 7.5 million. For the year, we had an earnings per share of NOK 40.43 and a dividend per share of NOK 0.60 per share. We ended with an equity ratio, which was fairly unchanged at 16.8%. Looking at the revenue and EBIT development, we have, through what at best has been a mixed market for the past 18-21 months, managed to keep the ship fairly steady. Our rolling 12 months revenue is more or less on par with what we had five quarters ago. We can see that our average growth rate for the past three years is close to 13% still.
Our EBIT margin, though, is hurt by this softer demand over the last year. As we have done some right sizing, as Arne mentioned, we have nonetheless decided to maintain our capacity to a great extent in order to be able to bounce back when the market also comes back. There are several vehicles, though, for our future growth and also margin accretion. One is that the activity in the market is now picking up and we see that our pipeline is growing. That gives us a lot of opportunities going forward. We expect that to lead to a more normalization of our utilisation. We are expanding, of course, in Sweden, where we started up again not so long ago. We have this new office in Rogaland in Norway, which will also be a vehicle for growth.
Right now, both those are called investment cases where we have to build some minimum capacity in order to have profits from those units. Last but not least, we have this Enter Ukraine with Itera service offering that is already providing some financial success. We expect that to continue into 2025 and even accelerate from the fourth quarter. If we look at the different revenue types that we have, the revenue from our own consultants decreased by 6% during the quarter, again, on account of softer utilisation, but also, of course, some less capacity. We grew, though, the revenue through subscriptions by 8%. The revenue from external subcontractors was down by 9%. The revenue from other types of business, like hardware and software sales, was also increased by 9%. Small numbers, though.
Our cash flow from operations was good in the fourth quarter, as it typically is, I would say. You can see in the graph on the right-hand side that there is a sort of seasonal fluctuations in our cash flow. The fourth quarter is typically the strongest one. The second quarter, the second strongest. Q1 and Q3 are more challenging in that sense. What I'd like to bring your attention to, though, is the EBITDA to cash conversion that we have, which both is strong in absolute terms, but also you can see that we've had a positive development over the past couple of years there, ending now at the 19.1% EBITDA to cash conversion in Q4. We spent quite moderately on the investing activities in the quarter.
There was a positive impact on the acquisition we made, as the cash outlay for that transaction was less than the cash that we took over from those companies. That was actually a favorable, I think, NOK 1.6 million in positive cash inflow. The rest of the transaction was share-based. In financing activities, we spent close to NOK 21 million, of which some NOK 16 million was paying out of the supplementary dividend in Q4. Yeah, together with the supplementary dividend of NOK 0.20 per share and the ordinary dividend that we paid out in the spring, we altogether paid out NOK 0.16 per share.
The board of directors yesterday proposed to the general assembly that we will pay out an ordinary dividend of NOK 0.20 in May-June, and then ask for an authorization to pay a supplementary dividend in Q4 again, as we have been accustomed to do over the last several years. The share price was down to NOK 8.94 at the end of the quarter, which is 21% lower than the end of 2023, if you consider dividend payments included in the meantime. We hold now approximately 682,000 shares of our own after the transaction with the acquisition. That is valued or was valued at NOK 6.1 million at the end of the quarter. We continue to distribute our earnings on a consistent basis to our shareholders, generating positive cash flow from our operations.
Quickly on the outlook, not a lot of changes there, except I would say that we now see more tangible evidence of the market seemingly returning to more normal growth. There are still some variances among the different industries. Our biggest industry, banking and insurance, have been among the softer ones, I would say, in the past year or so. There are other industries like energy, though, that is increasing well. Public sector is picking up again. There are variances, and we will, of course, try to find the opportunities that are out there and build on our strengths. I mentioned some of the growth opportunities, so I will not mention those again. Our focus, though, is on a balanced approach to growth in a profitable way. We will be somewhat cautious with adding more capacity.
We have still a lot of more capacity through our existing base of employees. Also, we have the opportunity to grow non-linearly, I would say, with headcount as well. That is pretty much it. Maybe there are some questions posted online. I do not know.
We have one question from [Arvid Håverstad]. That is, do you have any comments on the share development? The exchange rate has fallen from 14.15 to around NOK 9 per now.
I think we should not make any specific comments about the share price development. Of course, we do not like that the share price has decreased. Of course, we are a big also shareholder myself. If I talk myself, I do not like that.
Anyway, I will say that in general, I will say what we have been focusing on is actually we have really, if you look at the average three years that you presented, that has been quite good. During these three years, we have also built a very strong company. We have established five more offices, of course. Short term, I do not like what we have seen. The organization does not like to see it either, because there are also a lot of employees that also are shareholders with Itera. You are not satisfied, and the employees are not satisfied. We are at the same page. We have been looking at how could we also make sure that we are not downscaling too much, because we really believe we are in a strong position, right?
Going forward, we have the ambition to really increase the value for the shareholder going forward, but also be smart in between, because we see that has been a more softer market. We also managed to really establish a quite good foundation that will also provide a lot of cash flow going forward. Being this kind of company that has the ability to adjust according to what we see. From my point of view, what we have learned from this is actually that we are coming from a situation where there was quite after the COVID, there was a very strong demand for digitalisation. What we have done in Itera now is actually to change the company in order to be much closer to the customer, much more effort into the customer engagement from the whole organization.
I think that is also part of what I believe might have benefits going forward, that we managed to return back to the growth figures that we had in the past. Because we have the scalability from 15 locations, it's one model, so we have access to talents. That shouldn't be a problem. We also have looked at how could we also extend the number of customers. We also have a stronger customer base, and not that least also the organization itself has also improved how to approach that more and more the people, the culture with Itera is even closer to the customer than it was maybe two years ago, right? I really understand what he's saying. You are bleeding, we are bleeding, the employees are bleeding. Our ambition to really come back and also increase the value more than NOK 14-NOK 15.
We really believe that the potential is much higher than that also. I think we have the same interest in that perspective. Absolutely.
Thank you. That was everything for now.
All right, we will present our Q1 figures on May 9th. We hope to see you back then. In the meantime, of course, we are always available for any one-on-one meetings that you might want to have or questions you want to post to us, feel free to contact us.
All right. See you soon.
Happy Valentine's Day then.
Thank you.
Have a nice weekend.