Good morning and welcome to this fourth quarter and full year presentation for 2021 for Multiconsult. My name is Grethe Bergly. I'm the CEO. With me today I also have our CFO, Hans-Jørgen Wibstad, who will take you through some of the more details regarding the figures for this year. We come out of this quarter with a revenue of just about NOK 1 billion and an EBIT of NOK 819 million. For the year, the same figures are NOK 3.8 billion and the EBIT of around 350 million. It's important to note that the Erichsen & Horgen, the purchase we did just after the summer, is included in all these figures.
We have a billing ratio of 70.5% for the quarter and 70.4% for the full year. Operating expenses came in at NOK 139 million for the quarter and NOK 450 million for the year. Giving an earnings per share of NOK 8.67 . Looking at the fourth quarter, we come out of the quarter with a solid profitability, good cash flow, and we leave the quarter with a robust financial position. We have strengthened our market position through acquisitions and also some of the contracts that have been awarded in the quarter. We have completed a successful integration of Erichsen & Horgen into the Norwegian engineering business, and we have strengthened our position in Nordland County through the acquisition of Nordland Teknikk.
The quarter shows a solid performance through our continued focus on core business, sales, and project execution. We have also completed a share purchase program for our employees. We see now an increase in the number of employees who are also then part owners of Multiconsult. The board will propose a dividend of NOK 6 per share at general assembly. Looking at the fiscal year 2021, we have had solid profitability and operations. We have strengthened the footprint through strategic acquisitions. We have also a strengthened market position, and we see a substantial increase in revenue from new industry and the green shift. In the third quarter this year, we launched our new strategy and new strategic direction and also our ambitions.
Some of the projects that we would like to highlight from this year is Sotrasambandet. It is the largest infrastructure project in Norway ever, where we are just now working very intensely with the consortium of three contractors. Construction City, large development here in Oslo. 90,000 sq m of office space that our architects LINK are just now involved with the detail engineering of. We have also the Ocean Space Centre just awarded after the new year. This is an ambitious plan for the Norwegian authorities to create Norway as an important player in the opportunities given by the ocean space, and we are very pleased to have been given the trust from Statsbygg to be their advisor on the development of this.
There's also a huge project in Poland, a hub being developed for roads, rail, and the airport just outside Warszawa. Last, I would like to mention a project in Mozambique where we are working with our client to get an independent power supplier for solar energy to provide very highly needed energy sources in Mozambique. Looking at the order intake. For the fourth quarter, it was NOK 1.1 billion, and for the year 2021 it was NOK 4.3 billion. It's slightly down from the fourth quarter if you compare the quarters, but this is within the variations that we expect to see as our portfolio gradually become more and more with large projects. Sometimes, the contracts are awarded just after the calendar year, sometimes just before.
Looking at our order book, we can see that there's a slight very small movement. This is a very solid order book. I would also need to mention that the order book of Erichsen & Horgen is not included in these figures. We are just in the process now of aligning the figures according to Multiconsult Group's practice, and we will include this then from the first quarter 2022. Again, remind you all that the sales in connection with frame agreements is not included until the call-off has been made. If you look at the strategic moves for 2021, we've had growth through three acquisitions, the major one being Erichsen & Horgen, but also Nordland Teknikk and Smidt & Ingebrigtsen.
It gives us a number one position now within HVAC, energy, and environment, and we are also well-positioned to take the number one place within Buildings & Properties. We have strengthened our geographical footprint in Innlandet. We haven't had an office there previously in Nordland and Vestland counties, and also strengthened our position in the large industrial area of Grenland, just southwest of Oslo. We have also made our first investment in the startup sector with 7Analytics. We're working here together with this model platform provider to look at models for surface water, both with respect to today's situation, but using in artificial intelligence modeling what it would be like in the future. Dealing with water will be a major challenge for society as we see the climate changes going forward.
The green shift, we see now that there are unleashed new opportunities. We have a strong position here in a growing market, and we've had a significant growth in revenue in 2021. We see that we can now leverage on the experience and the expertise that we have working within Renewable Energy, oil and gas, and Industry. I would like to give you some insight into five projects where we are involved at the moment. One is the NOA Krafla platforms, where we're now helping the client to power it from shore. Similarly, with the huge onshore plant at Melkøya electrification, giving assistance on how to increase the power in this area. We are also doing work in connection with the electrification of the Grane field.
This very important project for Norway as well, in creating a position with technology with regards to carbon capture, and there's a huge development called Northern Lights, where we are involved for the client Equinor. Last, I would like to mention this, Horisont Energi, the client, where we are now looking at the, in the feed phase at developing the largest, the first large-scale factory for producing ammonia. There are plans here to make a hub to create an industry of this in Norway. Organization and people, we are 3,192 employees, as we leave 2021. We've had a substantial increase, compared to the fourth quarter in 2020. We have the acquisition of Nordland Teknikk.
We also had Ida Bryn appointed discipline sector director of HVAC, energy, and environment. Just to remind you all, skilled engineers is the foundation for everything we do in Multiconsult. We were also part of the team who have been awarded the Name of the Year in Norway, and this is the group of people who was part of the rescue team in connection with the quick clay landslide in Gjerdrum just at the start of 2021. There is also some increased short-term sick leave in the quarter related to COVID-19, and this is in line with what society as a whole is experiencing at the moment. With that, I give you over to Hans- Jørgen, who will take you through some of the details.
Thank you, Grethe, and good morning. I will, as usual, take you through the fourth quarter results, as well as the full year 2021. The net operating revenues ended at NOK 1,068 million, which is a healthy increase of 10.5% compared with the same period last year. The increase is particularly caused by the acquisition of Erichsen & Horgen, which is in for the first full quarter. Still a healthy increase year on year. The organic growth rate is 2.4%. The EBIT came in at a reasonably good level at NOK 89.8 million, equal to an 8.4% margin, which is 8.2% higher than the same figure last year, which ended up at NOK 83 million.
The billing ratio is down 0.5%- 70.5%. Taking into account that we have seen a somewhat higher short-term leave due to the COVID situation in the fourth quarter, it's a reasonably good figure. We're quite happy with that. The operating expenses came in at NOK 139.1 million, which is an increase largely explained by a higher IT cost that we have experienced through 2021, as well as the inclusion of a full quarter by Erichsen & Horgen, as well as finally some periodic normal effects. The order intake ended at NOK 1.1 billion, at just in excess of that, which is at a good level, somewhat lower than the fourth quarter last year, but these are periodic changes.
As Grete mentioned, we've had good sales in the first part or year to date in 2022. Looking at the full year, we see net revenues at NOK 3.8 billion, which is an increase of 3.9%, again driven mostly by acquisitions, while the organic growth rate is about 1.1%, which is not very high, but taking into account that it's been a very special year with the COVID-19 situation also impacting our business, it's a reasonable figure. With the EBIT coming in at NOK 348.9 million equal to 9.2% margin, a reasonably good result, the second-best result in the history of the company.
Somewhat lower than last year, which was at a very high level for various reasons that we've talked about earlier. The billing ratio came in at 70.4%, down 0.5% from last year, which was at a quite high level. Again, largely explained by the COVID situation, and it's a figure that we're constantly monitoring, as it is a very important KPI. Also operating expenses coming up a little bit due to the acquisitions as well as IT costs and some other cost increases, but still at a manageable level. We're seeing the OpEx ratio worsening from 15.6%- 16.4% during the year.
Still, a reasonably good level and much better than we saw before the turnaround in 2019 and 2020. The order intake NOK 4.35 billion, a pretty good order intake for the year. Book to bill, you know, above one, which is quite satisfactory, even though it's somewhat lower than the very high level in 2020, which gives us a good and solid order backlog at the end of the year at NOK 3.26 billion. I would like to just mention that we will change our main performance KPI on operating performance from EBIT to EBITA starting from 2022.
The reason for that is that we're seeing that our peers, industry peers, is using that as their main KPI, as well as acquisitions, and amortization of goodwill and immaterial assets is impacting this EBIT figure, as we do acquisitions. We think that EBIT, EBITA gives perhaps a better picture of the underlying operations of the business. These are the two main reasons for our intention to change that main KPI from EBIT to EBITA. Just to summarize a little bit on putting our figures into perspective and some historic figures.
We see operating revenues having a healthy increase over the last four years, with a particular jump now in the fourth quarter due to acquisitions, and we're happy to see that growing 10.5%. EBIT, we see that we've had basically, with the exception of perhaps the third quarter this year, which was a disappointment, we see that we have stabilized at a quite good level, coming in with NOK 90 million for this quarter in the bottom left-hand corner. We also addressed the billing ratio, which has come up from the third quarter, which was at a disappointing level to 70.5%. Still, we think that there is room to improve that further.
Taking into account that we've been through a challenging year with COVID impacting short-term sick leave, it's not a bad figure. And finally, on the number of employees, we see a quite significant jump there, naturally because of acquisitions that we've talked about several times. Now I'd like to address the main segments of the business. Region Oslo has had a good year with a 6.4% increase in revenues driven largely by acquisitions. A healthy EBIT of NOK 150.4 million, equal to a margin of 12%. Quite a significant decrease from last year, which was exceptionally good. The reduction is largely due to one area, which is infrastructure and transportation, which has reduced its EBIT by NOK 30.2 million comparing with 2020. Quite a significant figure.
However, we believe that they are in a transition period and had a bad year, but the outlook generally for the transportation business is good. We're not too worried about that, but of course, this particular challenging year also impacted by the cancellation of the Mjøsbrua project has been hitting the Region Oslo during 2021. Billing ratio down as we've seen through the business, but still at a quite healthy level, 71.9%. The number of employees naturally going up quite a bit because of most of the Erichsen & Horgen employees are located in Oslo, as well as Lillehammer, which is now included in the Oslo region. On Norway, Region Norway, another good year for Region Norway.
Growth of 4.3% to NOK 1.5 billion. EBIT of NOK 173 million, down a little bit from last year, but still at a healthy 11.5% margin. Order intake going actually up, which we're very happy to see that happening. Of course, the billing ratio at a more modest reduction than the rest of the business, which overall we can say that Region Norway has had a good year. Energy has had a year which is quite similar to last year when it comes to EBIT. Has had a good performance in this last part of 2021.
They have very good positions in the market, very interesting, as we move into the green shift that Grethe has talked about quite a bit. Although the financial performance is still not what we want to see, we're working hard to improve that. The Norwegian business is doing well, but we are still being hurt a little bit by the Multiconsult UK business, which has been undergoing a restructuring, has been hitting our P&L by NOK 5 million-NOK 10 million over the last couple of years annually. That has now been restructured, so we're quite optimistic that this kind of leakage or poor financial performance in U.K. will not be hurting our business anymore as we move forward. LINK Arkitektur, a mixed picture.
The Norwegian business is doing very well, as you can see in the bottom line there, with an EBIT of NOK 31.4 million at the bottom right-hand box. NOK 31.4 million equal to a healthy margin of 9.7%, while slightly lower than last year, but still at a healthy level. The business has experienced quite a dramatic drop in Sweden, and they're going through a massive or extensive restructuring as we speak, and are positioning themselves for what we believe is a prosperous and good market in Sweden. We're expecting that business to turn around as we move forward.
The same thing is happening, which has happened in Denmark, which hit us last year with a NOK 14.7 million loss, which has now turned into a break-even result for 2021 in LINK Denmark. A mixed picture, which is the reason why the EBIT margin for LINK as a whole is poor. We're very happy to see that Norway is performing well. We're very happy to see that Denmark has strongly improved, and we're optimistic that the efforts that are put in place in Sweden will see this business turning around as we move through 2022. The international business, which consists of Multiconsult Polska, as well as Iterio in Sweden, has had a good year. Both of the businesses have been doing well.
We're pretty stable on revenues at NOK 243.3 million, EBIT NOK 23.7 million, equal to about 10% margin. Pretty much the same as last year. Strong order intake, driven largely by large contracts in Poland. We see that the order backlog there has increased 19.2%. The Polish business is quite interesting. It has a slightly different business model than Multiconsult in Norway, and they have some of the contracts are very long-term. This is the reason why the order backlog in the international business is relatively higher than for the rest of Multiconsult. Looking at the operating revenues by business area, clearly Buildings & Properties and Mobility & Transportation is by far the largest.
We see Buildings & Properties being pretty stable, while we see quite a significant drop, 7%, on the Mobility & Transportation. You can recognize that also from the figures that I mentioned earlier with the transportation business in Region Oslo having a NOK 30 million lower result this year than last year, which we think is temporary reduction, but still a temporary reduction in activity level, while we still believe that the outlook for this business is quite good. We're not worried for the longer term. Industry an amazingly strong year with increase of 49% year-on-year in terms of revenues going to NOK 530 million, driven by our position in the industry and the green shift in our industry.
They have taken their fair share of that growth. We're very happy to see that. That looks very good as we move forward. Water & Environment also a very good strong increase in revenues, and Renewable Energy still pretty stable, but with a good outlook. Ending up talking a little bit about our financial position for 2021 on our cash flow. We had strong cash flow in the fourth quarter, and we ended up therefore with a flat working capital development +20, as you can see from the graph. That's a good result taking into account that we have grown the business.
As many of the shareholders have been used to, our working capital is fluctuating quite a bit, so our position has changed quite positively during the fourth quarter, which is seasonal. We've had quite heavy investments in 2021, NOK 364 million as a net figure. Most of that is the acquisition of Erichsen & Horgen, which was financed by cash as well as 80% cash and 20% shares. We've also had our organic investments as well as the investments in Nordland Teknikk. This has been financed through our cash resources. We've drawn down on loan facilities, and we've issued some shares, as I talked about with Erichsen & Horgen. Overall, we're coming out of the quarter with a very solid financial position.
We have a net debt to EBITDA of 0.06. Equal to that means that we're net debt free, if we exclude the IFRS 16 debt. We also have total undrawn loan facilities of NOK 590 million, which gives us a good and solid financial flexibility, as we move into 2022. Finally, the board's dividend proposal is NOK 6, which you can see from this graph, historically at a high level. Somewhat lower than the very high level in 2020, but at a solid level. When the board has considered the level of dividend, they have taken into account our solid financial results. We have a strong balance sheet.
It's important for us to have a good financial flexibility and ability to invest in our business as we move forward. Therefore, we ended up with NOK 6, which is well within our dividend policy, which is at least 50% of net profit. This number is equal to 69% of net profit. All right. Thank you very much. Grethe?
Thank you, Hans-Jørgen. Looking forward, we are seeing a situation now where we can leverage on our core business position within the two business areas of Buildings & Properties and infrastructure for new opportunities. We see a growing demand for solution related to climate change and climate adaptation. We see that we have a leading expertise and experience in the growing green industry and energy segment. The overall outlook looks good for all the five business areas that we operate in. There is, however, still some uncertainty regarding the post-COVID situation, but it is no different for us than it is for the society in general. We see a somewhat higher risk related to sick leave just for the start of 2022.
We have also had a very good sales at the start of 2022, so we are seeing that we're entering this year at a high level. Summing it all up, from a foundation of highly skilled workforce and a solid client base, we are set for long-term profitable growth with sustainable solutions for client society as a whole. Thank you. Then we open up for questions.
Yeah. We have from the Norwegian presentation earlier, we have a question from Bengt Jonassen at ABG Sundal Collier, and that's regarding organic recruitment. He says, "We got the impression this has been a focus area in recent quarters without us having seen any growth. What do you think about organic growth in the number of employees in the future?
We have. I think we can say that we still have an after effect of the turnaround position where we are. We've actually had layoffs, and it's been a systematic change of the workforce. We're seeing now that the turnover in Oslo has slowed down somewhat, so we will see a growth. As you have seen also, we still have some areas where, of course, there is still a turnaround position, and that's why it's difficult to say how the sum of it will be. In Norway, we are expecting to see a growth with respect to organic and number of employees.
Yeah. There was a question also from Bengt Jonassen, and that was regarding accrual cost in other OpEx that needs a deeper explanation, what it causes and what do you think, how should we think about this line going forward?
I think what we have experienced in the fourth quarter is our normal periodic effects within our business. Not all of our businesses are based on hours invoiced. There are also some normal fluctuations in the periodic effects. I think looking at our business as a whole, it's advisable to look at the margin and performance for the year overall when measuring our margin level.
Thank you. Now there's a question from Ole Jørgen Grøneng Nilsen at Pareto Asset Management: Will you be able to compensate the higher level of other operating expenses through pricing? To what extent is that already implemented?
Our main cost, of course, is related to salaries to our employees. We would say that what we have seen that we have through 2021 managed to maintain a higher level on the rates that we get in the jobs. We don't know when it's going to hit our books. Normally, we're talking about maybe six months. We are not that concerned, although and as a whole, we have seen that we have managed to close that gap over a few years. That was a much bigger challenge if you go four or five years back.
Yeah. Thank you. I think that answers it.
Yeah.
We can sum it up.
Okay. That's it then. Okay. Thank you all for being on the call. Have a nice day, and we see you back in April and May. Thank you.