Good morning. My name is Greta Vargle, and I'm the CEO of Multi Consult. And together with our CFO, Hans Wiebsta, we will now give you a presentation of the second quarter and 2020 for MultiConsult. Looking at the highlights, we come in after the first half year with a solid revenue growth. We have an increase of 7.4% compared to the same period last year.
This gives us an EBIT of EUR102.5 million for the quarter and almost EUR220 million for year to date, coming in at an EBIT margin of 11.3, which is a significant improvement from the same period last year. This shows us that we are continuing our improvement. And we can also see that another important KPI related to billing ratio has also gone up, and we are for the quarter at a billing ratio of 73.8%. At the same time, we have successfully continued the improvement related to cost level. And we come in at the quarter of February sorry, we come in with a cost level of €218,000,000 for the first half year, and this is a reduction of almost 13% compared to the first half year twenty nineteen.
The reductions are primarily related to improvements from next level, but we have also had some positive effect from the COVID-nineteen situation, primarily related to reduced costs for office facilities and a significant reduction in travel cost. We have also seen a solid order intake of almost NOK 1,000,000,000 for the first half year and, sorry, for the first half year, yes. And we are now, at a position of a NOK 3,000,000,000, order backlog. So far, multi consults have seen a modest impact from the COVID-nineteen situation, but, we are still uncertain about how this will affect us in the future. And we would like to welcome you to a Capital Market Day on the November 4, where we will give you an update on our development from the Capital Market Day last year and give you an indication of how we see our company going forward.
The results that we create are created by our very competent people. And we would like to show you some examples now of the projects that have actually been completed and handed over to the client in the period. The picture you see here is the main library in Oslo. MultiConsult has been involved in this project for over ten years. We've had all the major engineering disciplines.
And it was opened in July. And over the years, it will receive more than 2,000,000 visitors every year. The next two projects shows how we have a position also in providing solutions related to green solutions and environmental impact. The High School is the most environmentally friendly school in Norway. And over time, it will actually produce energy.
And it's LINK architects who have had this project. The other one is a road project. It's a private public cooperation project, the first one in ten years in Norway. We have here for the contractors Skanska and with our partner Os Jakobsen, designed a road that has an impact that will give a 25% reduction on climate emissions. And it's the first road in Norway to receive the level excellence within the environmental certification sequel.
And the road was opened two months prior to the planned date. Of new projects, we would like to highlight Grannosen. It's a sports stadium that's going to be developed. And on this one, we also have all the engineering disciplines. Jaren Stashun is a railway station.
We have executed early phase projects on this one, and we are proud to be given the trust from our client, Bahnenour, to continue developing the railway system in Norway. In addition, we would like to mention two projects that we have been awarded after the June 30. The first one is a new hospital to be built in Oslo as part of a larger development plan for the University of Oslo's Hospital. It's a 140 square meter, building that we, together with the Link, Fabel Architects, Birgeblick and Ericsson and Horgen are just starting these days. It shows our commitment.
It shows that our position within hospitals is a continuous success. We have also won a new contract for the new water supply of Oslo. This is the third contract within this development that we are being awarded, And we are grateful again to our clients who give us renewed trust to continue on this very important infrastructure project for Oslo. Looking at order intake, there's been an increase of 14.9% looking back to the previous same quarter last year. We are at a level of almost CHF 1,000,000,000.
We have also been awarded a large number of significant projects in the period. And we also see that we have a good pipeline for the next twelve month period. Here are some of the major projects that we've been awarded. In addition to the ones we showed earlier, it's a hospital in the North Of Norway, and it's also very we are pleased to see that our development within rail in Poland continues with this latest award. Looking at the backlog, it's again an increase of almost 10% from quarter two twenty nineteen.
There is some variation with respect to how this is going to be executed and also the distribution between the various business areas. I would like to remind you all that frame agreements, we do not take into our order backlog until we've actually had a call off. And, the list that you see shows some of the larger ones that we expect to get call offs from in the next, half year. Short about the organization and our people. At the end of this half year, we are 2,931 employees.
As you can see from the graph at the bottom of the page, this is a slight reduction from the same quarter in 2019, and this is in line with the next level plan. We've also had in Norway a successful summer program. We've had 53 students. And, the biggest achievement, is that we have managed to maintain our productivity despite having almost 90% of our employees working from home in some other periods. And, I would like to take this opportunity to to send my thanks and, share with you all how impressed I am with our workforce for the efforts they have shown in these very demanding times.
We have also, through our commitment through the to the construction industry, one of our EVPs, Kristin Olsson Augusta, has now entered in to the steering committee for the construction city initiative. Finally, before I give the word over to Hans Joeringen, It is required to give some comments on the COVID nineteen situation. We have taken prudent responsibility to secure all our people, our business and our customers. And we see now that we have come through this period having handled it well. We have managed to maintain almost an unchanged capacity, due to a high level of digitalization amongst, our employees, but also our support system on the IT.
We are now gradually returning employees who's been on temporary leave. At the same time, we maintain a close follow-up of the whole organization, and we continue the mobilization of our 19 COVID nine, response team. And, our efforts and focus on HSE means that so far none of our employees have been infected, by COVID nineteen at work.
And with this, I give you over to Hans Joergen. Okay. Good morning. My name is Hans Jurgen Liffstad. I'm the CFO of Multiconsult.
I would like to go through with you this morning our financial highlights for the second quarter as well as for the first half twenty twenty. And it's a good day to do that. We are quite happy with the figures. Net operating revenues are up 9.8% to $951,000,000 and with an EBIT of 102,500,000.0, giving an EBIT margin of 10.8%, which is up from minus 1.8% in the same quarter last year. It is worth just noting that there are a couple of things impacting the figures.
One is the calendar effect of EUR 14,900,000.0 when comparing with the same quarter last year as well as one off charges in the second quarter twenty nineteen of about CHF 20,000,000. Disregarding that, no doubt, it's a strong figure for the group. We're also seeing that operating expenses are coming down quite significantly on our key KPI ratio, which is other operating expenses compared with net operating revenues, which is down from 19% last year in the same period last year to 15.8% this quarter. It is worth noting that there are a few the figures is not only impacted by our next level improvement program, but there is, as Gerta mentioned, some impact from the COVID by way of lower traveling expenses, some lower expenses relating to our offices, etcetera, etcetera. The net profit then for the period is CHF 65,900,000.0 versus a negative CHF 21,800,000.0 in the same quarter last year.
And one of the key drivers for this improvement is our billing ratio that Greta mentioned, which is up to 73.8% from 71.3%. And it's the ratio which really was not so good in the first quarter where we had just below 70%. And we're seeing that and very, very happy to see that coming up. And it's one of the key things that we have been focusing on through our next level improvement program. So on the lower right hand, one can see the bridge from the second quarter twenty nineteen to second quarter twenty twenty, seeing the billing ratio giving a significant impact of €30,000,000 Billing rate is also up, very good.
We have the calendar effect, which is seasonal. And we also see an we see the improvement in operating expenses as well as other impact. So that is the bridge. Going over to the second sort of the first half figures, we're seeing that net operating revenues are up 7.4% to €945,000,000 an increase of, as I said, 7.4%. EBIT is a very, very solid 219,900,000.0 equal to a margin of 11.3%, which is up from EUR76.5 million in the first half twenty nineteen.
There are when comparing the figures, it's just worth mentioning that there are a couple of adjustments that can be made, which is the calendar effect, which is EUR 28,300,000.0. And we had total one off extraordinary costs of about EUR 30,000,000. Disregarding that is the improvement is significant and the result on its own is a very solid 11.3%. Driving that is, of course, the billing ratio, as I mentioned earlier, but also a lower operating expense ratio, which is down to 15.6% from 18.2%. And we're also, of course, impacted by Next Level and COVID.
However, it is worth mentioning that also in the first quarter, we had a similar ratio, where in the first quarter, we had a very small impact from COVID or maybe no impact from COVID. So naturally, both factors are driving the reduced operating expenses, but the next level is certainly a key driver for that. Net profit then for the first half is CHF 150,000,000 versus CHF 37,100,000.0 in the first half last year, billing ratio I already mentioned. And it's also important to highlight that this quarter, for the first time for many, many quarters, we are net debt free driven by very strong cash flow, and I will address that later in the presentation. So looking at the figures in more kind of quarter by quarter, we're seeing the second quarter on revenue is up 9.8% comparing with the same quarter last year, a little bit down from the first quarter.
But taking into account the calendar effect, which is significant between the first quarter and second quarter, where the number of working days in the second quarter is 8% lower than the first quarter. It is an improvement also from the first quarter. So that's an important adjustment to make. And also, EBIT is a little bit down from the first quarter, which was very strong, but again impacted by lower number of working days with the Easter hitting us in the second quarter. And in Norway, we have the May that has a lot of days off, a lot of holidays.
So a strong quarter, a strong first half for the group. Looking at some key KPIs, the billing ratio, we're seeing that in historic graph there on the upper right hand corner, coming up to the 74% level nearly in the second quarter, up from the first quarter. So very happy with that, as both Gret and I have mentioned earlier. And we're seeing a number of employees coming down, both comparing with the second quarter twenty nineteen but also comparing with the first quarter, which is in line with our next level improvement program, where the efficiency of the organization has a lot of focus. And we're happy with that development.
And it's going in the right direction, although in the longer term, we hope that the number of employees will increase as our business grows. So moving over to the segments. With a new setup from 2020, opening with up with a very good picture from the Finance Park in Stabanger, which fits well with my part of the organization, which is a wooden building that has received one of the larger wooden buildings in Europe and also an award winning building where Multi Consult has proudly been involved. Starting with the region Oslo, a very, very strong first half with net revenues growing 13.6% to 6 and €31,500,000 The EBIT coming in very strong at €99,100,000 equivalent to a margin of 15,600,000.0 Of course, the first half twenty nineteen there was impacted by the one off cost of 20,000,000 So that's worth noting. But improvement in any case is very, very significant, and the performance of Region Oslo has been throughout very strong, driven by lower cost and also by significantly higher billing ratio to 74.5% for the first half.
And in the second quarter, the billing ratio was even higher for Region Oslo. The number of employees is down, in line with our efficiency program and also improvement program. And also the order intake is at a satisfactory level, although slightly lower than first half twenty nineteen. But that varies a little bit between quarters. So we're not too worried about that even though we are closely following that number.
With Region Norway, which is now the largest region in our business, largest area, we're seeing operating revenues also growing nicely to CHF $758,000,000, up 3.3% EBIT, EUR 81,200,000.0, giving a healthy EBIT margin of 10.7%. Order intake in this quarter is sorry, first half is very, very strong, $911,000,000, which is significantly above the operating revenue, giving a bookbill ratio way above one and a healthy order backlog. Billing ratio is still below the 70 on average, but for quarter, the billing ratio is way significantly above 70%. So it's certainly going in the right direction after a quite slow start and poor billing ratio figure for the first quarter. Number of employees is at a stable level.
Moving over to energy, which is our one of the areas where we are focusing a lot of our efforts where we see great opportunities as we move forward. Net operating revenues, 134,900,000.0, slightly up from 2019. EBIT's just above zero. The Norwegian operation is doing very well. However, it's right now, the activity in our U.
K. Operations, which is linked to the energy sector, is still lagging behind, although we are hoping and believing that, that will pick up as we have been awarded some very important contracts during this summer. EBIT margin, as I said, 1.7% and order intake at a pretty good level and order backlog also historically at a good level. Billing ratio, 61.9%, poor in U. K, which is a driving factor for that solid in Norway.
And we're moving very hard to improve that business overall, and it's an important area for us where we see very, very interesting opportunities as we move forward. Link architecture is our next region that we I would like to talk about, which consists of the Norwegian operations, which is the biggest one, and then we have offices in Sweden and Denmark, where we're seeing revenues up 3.3% to EUR $3.00 3,000,000 EBIT, 17,600,000.0, slightly down and an EBIT margin of 5.8%. Now the Norwegian operations is doing very well, but we're still, as we have been for a few quarters, struggling in Sweden and Denmark. And they are going through a very solid turnaround process there to improve profitability, so we're confident on that. But the it is impacting with negative figures in both Sweden and Denmark, it is impacting the overall financial performance of the Link Group.
Order intake is good, 403.4%. Book to bill way above 1%, which is very, very strong and giving a good order backlog. Billing ratio at a normal level, 74.2% good. It's been higher. It's been in that area for some time.
And we're seeing a number of employees going slightly down, partially due to restructurings taking place in the Nordic countries. Moving finally to International, which is a segment consisting of Iterio in Sweden and Multikonsult Polska. They're doing very, very good. We had a very strong performance in both of those companies in the first half. Revenues for them combined is up 23% to €126,800,000 The EBIT is strong, 14,800,000.0 equal to a margin of 11.7%, stronger than last year and at a solid level.
The main driver for the growth is Poland, which is growing very, very strongly and also good growth in Ontario. And the margins levels in both Ontario and Pulska is strong with particularly good performance from Ontario on the margin side, whereas Pulsedga is in line with our expectations. But they have a growth situation. So taking that into account, it is a very, very strong performance by Pulsedga as well. Order intake, 264,300,000.0 book to bill, then above 2%, which is very, very impressive with a growing order backlog.
Billing ratio at 79% and of course, number of employees with such growth is up 8.2% to 303%, which can be compared with the growth on revenues of 23%. So it's a good ratio there as well. Moving over to our to the business areas. A few words on that as well. We're seeing all our key business areas growing, building and properties, transportation being the two biggest ones as well as water and environment.
We're seeing a moderate reduction in our activity level on renewable energy, but this is an area where we are investing a lot of money and effort and believe this is something for the future. So we are not too worried about that, but that will fluctuate with time, of course, which is quite natural. Finally, from my side on the financial position, as I mentioned earlier, strong cash flow from operations in the first half. We're also seeing despite increase in revenues, we have improved our working capital with CHF 26,400,000.0, and we're very happy with that. We've also stopped our investments pretty much.
They are down to CHF 13,900,000.0. So we're very restricted restrictive on that, although we have the possibility to invest in necessary do the necessary investments. We're taking down our debt level through the quarter by repaying our RCF by €100,000,000 nearly €100,000,000 sorry, and that gives us at the end of the quarter a cash position of €237,400,000 and also a position of being a net debt free company with a positive net interest bearing debt or negative net interest bearing debt of €156,200,000 versus we in the previous quarters have been in a net interest bearing debt position. So a solid position to be in and a good foundation for our activities as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Hans Jurgen. I will now give you some more insight into development on our improvement program next level. As you can see from the graph on the right, we are continuing to lift the levels. And by mid August, we have committed 110,000,000. And this graph shows you a bit more of the details.
Looking at cost out, we have only made modest commitments that we take and report on for this quarter. This is mainly related to the fact that we have mentioned a few times that we want to make sure that the effects that we see on costs related to office and costs related to travel, what it will actually be on when we come to a more normal operating level. When it comes to operations, it has been lifted from EUR 26,000,000 last quarter to EUR 39,000,000. And it has been improvements on all the three main areas of organizational adjustment efficiency and also reduced impairment. Activities that has been executed here is looking at the number of leaders.
We have looked at how the support staff. And we have also worked, as you can see, the effect of our billing ratio on the efficiency. At the same time, we also feel that we are getting better control over our project portfolio and we see an improvement also on the impairments related to this. The way forward on the next level, we see that other operating expenditures have been reduced due to travel and office expenditure, and we will, in the next quarter, have experienced what we can expect to be the normal operating level. At the same time, I'm sure all over the world, we are seeing a new way of working.
And, we will, presumably also see how our new, use of our office spaces and our travel guidelines will change. We maintain the level of restructuring costs at CHF 60,000,000 to CHF 70,000,000. So we are well on our way to our next level goal of CHF 150,000,000. We maintain our EBIT goal of 8% in the initial phase and a long term goal of 10%. Then finally, we are on a positive development on the ongoing turnaround process.
We have seen a tremendous commitment from all levels of the organization, and they are the ones to be thanked for the results that we are actually now seeing. The next level program is on track. We go out of this quarter with a solid backlog. And in addition to that, we've had some major projects also awarded in the period after the June 30. We see a market that is overall is good and also a strong tender pipeline in most business areas.
Finally, we see that so far, we've had a modest negative impact due to the COVID-nineteen situation. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients and their commitment to keeping the projects going. There is some uncertainty still, connected to the situation that the COVID-nineteen will give in the future. And we would also, like to to mention that we see some uncertainties in the sector of building and properties, architecture. With this, I would like to thank you all for listening in.
We welcome you back on the November 4, where we will present our third quarter and also give you a capital market update. And on this file, you can also see the dates for the forthcoming quarter report. Thank you.