Good morning and welcome to this presentation of the results for Multiconsult for the first quarter 2024. My name is Grethe Bergly, I'm the CEO, and with me today is also our CFO Ove Haupberg, who will take you through some of the more details with respect to the figures later on. These are the KPIs that are the main drivers for the Multiconsult business, and as you can see there's good growth both on revenue and in particular the billing ratio. The result is that this is improved performance compared to the first quarter 2023. We have increased the revenue, in particular driven by 10% organic growth. There's a good result overall in the whole group, and we see that there's been high activity in the quarter, which has also then resulted in a significant improvement of the billing ratio.
We see that in the period there's been a stable demand for our services, and we've had both a good sale and we continue to increase our order backlog. Looking more detailed into the market and sales, we have had sales in the period that are very well distributed among the four business areas that we operate in, and they are to a large extent confirming the trends that we have talked about in the last quarters. We see that there are now projects related to water treatment. We see that there are onshore facilities for salmon farming. We've had a good project within housing and service center. And in Denmark we've won a very significant project within pharma, life science, and this is a good example of how the skills and references that we have in hospitals are transferable to other industries.
We have also won a hospital project in Sweden, confirming to a large degree the strong position that we have within hospitals. At the same time there's also been additions to some of the larger ongoing projects that we have talked about previously. The result of this is that the sales have gone marginally down from the first quarter 2023, but I'd like to remind you all that we had a record high sales on two large hospital projects in the first quarter last year. So underlying sales is on par for the two comparable quarters. As you can see we continue to build our order backlog. There's been two events that's worth mentioning in this quarter. The presentation of the National Transportation Plan for Norway has been put forward, and we see that we are well positioned for the projects that are given priority.
In addition to the traditional projects we see that the authorities now are putting emphasis on climate robustness, making climate robust solutions, and also looking at infrastructure as part of the increased risk that we see on the geopolitical picture in the world. There's also been a conclusion on the European Performance and Building Directive. This will have a direct impact on how property owners will have to develop and improve the properties that they have in their portfolio, and we expect that this will give quite a lot of work for us, but over a time scale of 5-10 years. Looking at people and organization, we are now 3,772 employees. As we explained in the third quarter last year, all new employees will be given a number of shares in the company, and in this quarter we have issued 2,720 shares.
We have a new director in the region west in Norway. He is replacing the director that was there, who is now part of the executive management team. We also donated NOK 100,000 to Engineers Without Borders in the work that they do to ensure drinking water to the civilization in Gaza. We are seeing that the integration of the two companies that we bought in Sweden are now well on the way with the integration with Iterio. When it comes to excellence, we are pleased that our Polish daughter was awarded the Technical Advisor of the Year prize. We see that LINK Arkitektur is listed among the top 100 architects' offices in the world, ranked as number 44. The Isfjord Radio at Svalbard was awarded the Solar Energy Award for 2023.
This is a significant award in that it's the first of to show how we can use renewable energy in the Arctic and develop methods for off-grid societies. Also Stortorvet 7 was awarded the Building of the Year for 2023. With that I hand you over to Ove.
Thank you, Grethe, and good morning. We will then have a close look at the numbers for first quarter 2024. We start with net operating revenue for the quarter ends at NOK 1,367,000,000. That is an increase of 4.3% from the same quarter last year. The organic growth in this number is 9.8%, and on top of that we have the M&A activity at 3.2%. The majority stems from the purchase of R-Lab last summer, but also some from Helm that came into the group from December last year. The calendar effect is negative by 8.7%. We have six fewer working days this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. The difference is the Easter, and our calculated effect is NOK 113.7 million. The main driver behind the growth is a higher number of employees, 349, that is 320 full-time equivalents.
We see this in the graph underneath as increased capacity. Then we have the improved billing ratio, also mentioned by Grethe, in all four segments. The billing ratio for the quarter is 733.5%, that is an improvement on 2.5 percentage points from last year. So following the trend from Q4 2023, we have full focus on productive time throughout the group. EBITDA ends at NOK 136.8 million, that is a decrease on NOK 36.8 million or NOK 79.5 million since last year. But the margin is still 10%, and the underlying EBITDA adjusted for the calendar effect is NOK 250.5 million. This is shown in the alternative performance measures in the report, and that gives an underlying margin of 16.9%, that is an improvement from last year on 0.5 percentage points.
The order intake is very strong, NOK 1,847 million, and also a solid order backlog, 9.3% above the same level last year.
So we are well positioned for the future. Financial highlights, and this is the results then over time, and we see the results vary between the quarters in line with the number of available working days. First quarter is in orange, and starting top left we see the growth in net revenue 4.3%, but we also see that the rolling 12 in blue still have a positive trend. And the same with the billing ratio top right, improvement from last year 2.5 percentage points, and you also see that the rolling 12 has no shift upwards on that. And also the number of employees increased by 10.2%, and then down left gives us then the result for the quarter of 10%. And good underlying performance on top of that as commented.
Then the results per segment, and we remind you that the architect segment was introduced from Q2 last year, includes both LINK and R-Lab, and all numbers are first quarter compared to the same quarter last year. Starting then to the left with Oslo. The underlying performance in these segments was strong and better than last year. The drivers are the growth in the number of employees, and on top of that increase in billing rates and improved billing ratio. As you see the reported net operating revenue was NOK 4.8 million lower than last year, decrease of 0.9%, and the EBITDA was NOK 35.2 million lower than last year. But the key driver for this reduction is the negative calendar effect of NOK 48 million due to the difference of Easter.
Moving then to the right to Region Norway, the net operating revenue increased by NOK 2.3 million from last year, an increase of 0.4%. The EBITDA of 66.5% was NOK 26.6 million lower than 2023, but the calendar effect is negative by NOK 1.8 million. That means that the underlying performance in these segments is significantly stronger than last year. We have a solid growth in the capacity, and we have improved billing ratio, and on top of that also improved billing rates. Then we move to the right again to architecture. The growth in net operating revenue on NOK 24.1 million or 14.2% is mainly caused by the incorporation of R-Lab in these numbers. The calendar effect is negative by NOK 15.5 million, and that is explaining the majority of the deviation from last year. So some few comments per company, starting with LINK Norway.
We remind you that the underlying performance has strengthened, caused by the improvement program that we launched at the end of 2022, that is focusing on all aspects of the P&L. But the calendar effect and the challenging market in some parts of the country and in some business areas has put pressures on the results, and the market situation has unfortunately also caused some temporary layoffs. LINK Sweden, underlying performance has improved from a good level last year in all parts of the country, with the exception of the more challenging Stockholm market. LINK Denmark also faced with improved performance compared to last year, and the turnaround process led by the new CEO and her new management team has caused an uplift in the billing rates, and also savings on other costs. The last company in architecture R-Lab faced a more demanding market, causing reduced net operating revenues.
R-Lab is focusing more on the early phase market, whereas Link is more exposed to the public sector. To compensate for the sales lost there has been unfortunately a number of temporary layoffs in the company, and R-Lab is delivering negative results for the quarter. In total we see a reduction in the number of employees of three compared to Q4 last year, and we have 30 temporary layoffs. The last segment international, net operating revenue increased by 31% up to NOK 96 million, and the currency effect is positive by 6.5% in this. The main driver for improvement is high activity in Multiconsult Polska, and also the integration of Helm in Iterio. The calendar effect is negative by 6.4% in the segment. EBITDA has improved in Multiconsult Polska, but the integration costs of the Helm companies are putting pressure on the results from Iterio this quarter.
And also to remind you that in the balance sheet we have introduced the effects of VA Resurs that was bought first quarter this year, also in the number of employees and in the order backlog. Ok, that was the results and then some financial position. Starting to the left on cash flow. So we ended 2023 with a cash situation positive at NOK 278 million, and we have created a positive cash flow from the business, from the operation, NOK 152 million in this quarter. We have a seasonal change in working capital, that is mainly work in process, but also payment of public taxes via VAT, but an improvement in accounts receivable in this.
Cash flow from investments that is half from VA Resurs, but also from the new drilling vessel that we will have delivery on this summer, and we also have a repayment of long-term debt that we see in the financing situation. So, including IFRS 16 effects we end the quarter with a positive cash flow of NOK 71, and also to the right you see that we still have a strong financial position, and that the gearing ratio is low, 0.87%, so we also still have a solid position for the future financially. The last from me, the free cash flow.
In the dark blue we see the cash flow from operating activities that is negative by 28.4%. That is mainly the operating profit corrected for the change in working capital, and also the cash flow used in investments activity negative by 37%, and that is in the light blue line. This is excluding acquisitions. And from the last 12 months we have a positive free cash flow onto 94%. So that was the last from me. Hand it back to you, Grethe.
Thank you, Ove. Looking at the market structure, this shows the revenue split on the business areas that we operate in. As you can see, it is an overall increase of 6%. The distribution between the four business areas is as always very stable, but you can see there is a slight decrease compared to last quarter when it comes to building and properties. This is an effect of us transferring some of our people into projects within both primarily in energy and industry, and market and environment. It's an example of also of the robustness of the business model that we can move people into the areas where we see stronger growth. This time we would like to give you a little bit more insight into the market trends when it comes to transformation and urban development.
This is an area where we see a large growth potential. It's a tendency that we see in all the major cities, but also in smaller urban areas, where we see that the complexity of developing these areas is increasing, and we see that the interdisciplinary services that we can supply with architects and engineers have a huge value to the clients who want to take on these tasks. We need to in the future to create cities where people thrive, and where it is made easy to make good climate-friendly choices. We need to develop cities where we are restoring nature and balance with the natural systems. Last but not least we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the existing and future environment.
To do this you require new skills, and you require that we put together the projects in a different way from the traditional when the architect goes in and does their plan. This is an example of how R-Lab is involved at the moment with strategic plans for several large areas in Oslo. It's a requirement that we are able here to see the big picture and scale up on the interdisciplinary cooperation that these areas require. It is no longer enough to have a building and look at the building as an entity on its own. You need to have the ability to see how this building interacts with its environment, how you create mobility solutions around the buildings, how you get your energy source, how you make that circular way of solutions that you can reuse and you make flexible solutions.
And in this the cooperation that you need from the architect and the engineers requires new skills, and Multiconsult is able to deliver on all the aspects that you need for a successful and sustainable solution like this. We also see that nature is coming as a much more important and stronger driver than we have seen in the past. And again it requires the people who also in the early phases develop an area need to take in new skills, new premises are set for housing development, and together Multiconsult and the architects are able to provide good and sustainable solutions for these major challenges. Here's an example from Oslo called Galleri Oslo.
This is what it looks like today on the left-hand side, and this is how when you start a transformation of this kind of area you end up with a solution where it's just not how the traffic is going to be and what the building is going to be, but you take into a lot more aspects. Skills that this required is something where we see that we can develop along with our engineers and our architects. We are also involved with one particular project in Tromsø, Tromsø Harbour, where we are looking at the whole area, how it can be developed, at the same time as we are challenged on how can you develop this area so that it's a good area for the maritime business.
At the moment Multiconsult and our architects are involved with four and five of these kinds of transformations, and we expect that this is something that's going to be an increasing market in the future. Finally, Outlook. We expect the overall market to remain stable. There are still some variations across the geography and business areas. The pipeline for upcoming projects remains robust, but there are still challenges in the Scandinavian architecture market, although with some slight signs of improvement. We are expecting growth within defense, rehabilitation, and transformation, and Multiconsult is well positioned to take a position on this. We are also well positioned to take on the project that's been given priority in the National Transportation Plan. We still have a high volume of ongoing projects and a diverse portfolio, and as we have shown you also a very high order backlog.
We've had a good sales at the start of this quarter. With that we finish this presentation. I'd just like to remind you the calendar days for the next presentations, one in August and one in November 2024. With that we open up for questions.
Thank you. We have a question that I will translate from the Norwegian presentation earlier today. That was from Martine Kverne in Nordea. The question was, how will you be able to compensate for the expected high salary increase in Norway, especially related to already agreed contracts including frame agreements?
Yeah. We've explained previously that salary increases for existing projects it tends to be that our contracts are regulated in such a way that we can compensate for that. So this is most relevant for future contracts, and again it's a lot to do with the competitive market, and we see that there's a slight difference between the various markets that we operate in. So we do of course try to transfer our people to where we find less competition, and we do our best really to compensate on the rates when we see that salaries go up.
Thank you. Then she had one more question and that was related to the architectural market. Can you outline the outlook related to the market for architecture?
Yes. We expect that there will be increased activity, but the large effect will probably not come until the end, towards the end of the year and the start of 2025.
Thank you. There's no further questions.
OK, we just say thank you from Oslo and have a good day.
Thank you.