Good morning. Welcome to the Kitron fourth quarter and full year results presentation for 2018. I am Cathrin Nylander, CFO and acting CEO of Kitron. Organic growth was strong in the quarter. We ended at NOK 740 million for the quarter and a growth of 10.6% compared to last year. Growth, excluding the Defence/Aerospace sector, was actually 24% in the quarter. Also strong was the order intake. The order intake here was about NOK 920 million, in line with the level of last year, and builds up to a record high order backlog of slightly over NOK 1.5 billion at the end of the quarter. It is actually a 16.2% growth compared to last year.
The EBIT margin ended at 5.7% compared to 6.5% compared to last year. Earlier in quarter, we announced the acquisition of the EMS division from API Technologies in the U.S. That transaction has caused some expenses for legal and financial advice, about NOK 6.7 million in the quarter. Adjusting for those one-offs, the EBIT margin for the quarter was 6.6%. EPS, due to those one-offs, were about a similar level as last year, NOK 0.16 compared to NOK 0.17 last year. We have continued to build up inventory in the quarter to secure deliveries and future growth, the cash flow was also in the fourth quarter negative with about NOK 27 million. Slightly better cash flow, though, than Q3 this year.
Net working capital ended at NOK 780 million, up a whopping 60% compared to last year. If you look on the full year, we have a strong order growth, including oil and gas, if you look in total. The year ended at slightly over NOK 2.6 billion, in line with our expectations for the year. The growth was 7.5%, and again, if excluding the Defense and Aerospace, the growth was 22%. EBIT margin at 6%, up 0.1% compared to last year. If we exclude the one-offs at 6.2%, so just slightly below our mid-guiding compared to the earlier this year. EPS 0.63 percent, or 0.63 compared to 0.57.
We see early signs of increasing activities in the customers in the oil and gas industry, which has led to a substantial backlog increase in the marine offshore sector, I have to add. With that backlog that we're having, I think we're firmly positioned for 2019. Some important agreements in the fourth quarter. We received a three-year contract with a scope of NOK 150 million from a complex rehab technology customer in the medical sector. It is modules for electric wheelchairs, and the production will take place in Kitron's plants in Sweden and the U.S. As I would say, we have just started the production at the very, very end of Q4.
In the fourth quarter, we're proud to announce that we were selected as main supplier as for electronics to CROWS for Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. It's a contract that can be NOK 300 million over five years. The production will take place in the U.S. and in Norway. It will start in 2019. Important, Kitron, we are to acquire the EMS division of API Technologies Corp. We entered into agreement end of November. The acquisition marks a substantial strengthening of our position in the U.S. market. The business is highly complementary to our existing operations. It's a focus on defense, aerospace, medical, and industry. It's located in Windber, Pennsylvania, which is very close to our current facility in Johnstown. They have approximately 100 employees and 10,000 square meters of facility.
The revenue in 2017 amounted to about $30 million. The purchase price, $15.9 million in cash, equal to net asset value. The closing is expected to take place in Q1 this year. There has been a shutdown, but so far it has not affected our plans. Capital Markets Day. Happy to announce that we will host the Capital Markets Day in Oslo, March 21st this year. You are welcome to register on our kitron.com for this event, and we will like to invite you, and happy to see you. Financial statements for full year and Q4 2018. We grew about 10.6% in the quarter. It's up compared to last year. It's up NOK 71 million, and as I said, it's 24% growth excluding Defence/Aerospace.
Industry continued to be the strongest grower. It grew about 39% and up NOK 100 million compared to last year. Defence/Aerospace is down actually NOK 50 million and 30% compared to the same quarter. Medical device is basically the same. Offshore Marine, high percentage, but only NOK 8 million. Energy telecoms up NOK 13 million. For the full year, we ended up at NOK 2,620 million, up NOK 180 million, and here we see large shifts for the full year. We grew 22%, excluding the Defence/Aerospace. The industry is up NOK 300 million. Defence/Aerospace is actually down NOK 200 million. We grew about NOK 60 million in medical and NOK 10 million in telecoms and NOK 17 million in offshore marine in NOx. The percentages are quite strong for the offshore marine, but the value is quite low.
We see a strengthening, which is very good. Revenue by country continued strong growth in Lithuania and China. In the fourth quarter, Lithuania grew 30%, and China actually grew 15%. Norway and Sweden, that's expected basically on the same line as last year, and the US had a slight decline. The strongest growth in Lithuania and China for the quarter in line with the development for the full year. I'm happy to announce now that Lithuania has broken the EUR 100 million level as well as the NOK 1 billion level of revenue for a year. In total, they grew 23%, and China actually grew 28% for the year. Both Sweden and Norway had a decline of 6% and 10% respectively, which was expected.
The Norway, Sweden, and US revenues are affected by the decline in the defense revenue. Looking at the profitability and where we ended up, this is a timeline. We have adjusted back the one-offs for Q4 2018, landing at about NOK 49 million and 6.6%. We see it's the highest profit that we've had, I think ever. We see a clear distinction between Q1, Q2, and Q4, which are starting to be more equal, whereas Q3 will always be the slightly lower quarter. It's a strong quarter, although the component allocations has created less flexibility, and we are not able to push around demand as we would like to, and it creates inefficiencies. In that said, I'm really happy about what we have delivered in Q4.
It's been a lot of hard work from many people to manage this figure. Again, a comment on the one-offs related to the acquisition. It's legal and accounting advice relating to the negotiations and due diligence process. Profitability by site. Lithuania is back to the normal profitability level. They had a short-term demand push out in Q3, which pulled the profitability level down. Now they're back at about 9%, 9%-10%, where they're normally at, and a growth in nominal value. We see strong profitability improvement in Sweden, so they have a 5% reduction in top line for the quarter. In spite of that, they have doubled their profitability from 3.6 to 7.4, basically. Norway had some inefficiencies related to material allocation.
It is, I would say, affecting Norway most. They also had some ramp-ups that took slightly longer than they expected. Profitability is slightly lower in the quarter than we've had so far. U.S. is affected by the defense projects timing. It will be improving in beginning of 2019 for the U.S. Looking at the full year then, where we ended up, where Lithuania and China show every improvements in percent for sure. Sweden and Norway, in spite of their revenue reductions of 6% and 10% respectively, they have stabilized or improved their profitability levels, which is good since they are affected by the U.S. timing. Inventory build up to secure deliveries and future growth.
The cash flow was -NOK 27, so it's improvement from Q4. We had a positive NOK 90 last year, so it's quite a substantial change or deviation. There are threefold explanations to this. We have both allocated material, put it into inventory. We also have had some postponements on deliveries, so we're keeping it in inventory and the deliveries will happen in 2019, mostly, mainly. We have build up for growth in Q1 and Q2, and we've also produced for later deliveries, which is affecting it. I have to comment on that, and that we will see a reduction in the net working capital in 2019. The reason for this is that we see that the material allocation situation is stabilizing.
It is improving slowly, and we see shorter lead times, so we expect to start to bleed off the extra material that we have, starting actually in January, February this year. The gearing is affected by this higher working capital, so it's at 1.9 compared to 0.9 last year. Thus, slightly worsened working capital efficiency figures. Net working capital and percent of revenue is up to 23%, compared to 17.5 last year. We should be around 20%. That's our goal, so we need to bring that down. Cash conversion cycle also still high, 84 compared to 61 at the end of last year. The ROC ended at 17.5 compared to 23.2.
If you adjust the ROC for the one-offs, it was actually around 20% and not 17.5%. Short on the market development and on the strong backlog that we have in the quarter. I will say offshore strengthened. The offshore order backlog is now NOK 100 million. It's increased with NOK 80 million compared to last year and NOK 60 million compared to last quarter, and it is to deliver early in 2019, basically. Defence, as we've said, is down also this year. Down also this NOK 472 million and 6% down from last year. Actually, it increased in the quarter with NOK 50 million. Medical up 11% compared to last year. Industry up 20%, and then telecoms up 11%.
We are firmly positioned for the start of 2019. A few summary comments for the quarter as a whole. We had a strong order intake, we delivered a growth in the order backlog of about 16%. The revenue was record high at NOK 740 million, ended up at NOK 2.6 billion in top line for the full year, an increase of 7.5%. Adjusted for one-offs, EBIT was 6.6%, up from 6.5%, 6.2% for the full year, up from 6.1%. Industry sector continues to be strong. Marine offshore is picking up, Defense is temporarily weak. We will see Defense growing again at the end of 2019.
We have made the acquisition of the EMS division, which will strengthen us in the position in the U.S., and we expect to close that during Q1. The component availability has continued to be an issue, but we see that the situation now seems to have stabilized, and we see shorter lead times coming on now. Also, the board proposes a dividend of NOK 0.40 per share for 2018. The outlook for 2019 shows further improvements and increases our confidence in our strategic ambitions. Finally, at the outlook. For 2019, Kitron expects revenue to grow to be between NOK 2.9 billion and NOK 3.2 billion. EBIT margin is expected to be between 6.2% and 6.6%.
The growth is primarily driven by the acquisition of the EMS division, but also a substantially growth for customers in the industry in the offshore marine sectors. The profitability is driven by cost reduction activities and improved efficiencies. That was all for this time. Thank you all for tuning in and listening. Talk to you soon again. Thanks.