Welcome to NRC Group's Quarter One presentation. This presentation will also be followed by a Q&A session at 10:00 A.M. today. Please refer to our stock notice for participation details. As always, quarter one is impacted by winter conditions. We have a high seasonality in our business. Especially within the construction contracts, the activity level is low. However, it is an important season where our employees has done a good job making sure we have stable train traffic at our Swedish and Finnish maintenance contracts throughout the winter. The revenue is more or less in line with last year, adjusted for the one-off sales of inventory in Finland, Quarter one, 2020. The EBITDA of -NOK 59 million is also in line with last year.
The order intake for the quarter was NOK 860 million. This was negatively affected by the cancellation of the Maintenance Area 5 contract in Finland with -NOK 183 million. It was also impacted by negative currency effects of NOK 240 million. The Q1 order intake level was at satisfactory level and adjusted for these two effects. The book-to-bill ratio in Q1 was 1.1. Our order book at the end of the quarter was NOK 6 billion compared to NOK 8 billion last year. This is, of course, impacted by the low order intake in 2020. Also, we see currency effects of NOK 500 million explaining some of the difference. Our cash flow was solid in the quarter with NOK 17 million, leaving us with a good cash position of NOK 551 million end of quarter. COVID-19 is still very present in our markets.
Although we haven't seen too much direct effects in the project execution, we still experience secondary effects with disruptions in the value chain. Also, we see that we face some capacity challenges in the civil construction area in Norway due to travel restrictions. As the rest of the society, we are very much looking forward to more normal operating environment, and especially when it comes to our improvement programs, where we also need to involve our project organizations in the work. It will be very favorable to be able to meet more frequently. Getting the work done in a safe way is our first priority. In Quarter One, we had a high injury frequency rate of 9.6. This is due to tougher winter conditions than last year, and the injuries are of less serious nature and related to the tough winter conditions.
We expect this trend to be more normal during the year as the operating environment gets more favorable and also as the activity level are picking up. Our sickness absence rate is 4.1%, significant better than last year. Although we still see some COVID-19 effects into our number this quarter. Also this figure we believe that will gradually become better as we move forward this year. Sustainability is a part of NRC Group's DNA. Our mission is to create infrastructure that goes beyond the demands of today and tomorrow. For us, it does not stop at building sustainable infrastructure. We also strive to do it in a sustainable way. It is important for us to meet the requirements from investors when it comes to provide good information also within this area.
With our sustainability report published earlier this year, we are significantly improving our reporting within this area. We are also closely monitoring the EU work on sustainable finance and the EU Taxonomy regulations. We will, during this year, classify our revenues, our costs, and our investments according to this regulation. We believe that NRC Group will benefit from the EU Taxonomy as all our core business areas are closely aligned with the EU environmental targets. We will also, in Quarter two, present our targets within sustainability to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. I will leave it to Dag to go through the financials.
Thank you, Henning. As Henning mentioned, Q1 is low season for our business, and hence revenue and results are affected by that. Revenue in Quarter one was NOK 1.13 billion, which is 10% lower than last year. Last year included an extraordinary sale of inventory of NOK 110 million in Finland, and adjusted for that, revenue is more or less on same level as last year. EBITA, excluding M&A, was NOK -59 million, compared with NOK -54 million last year and at normal levels for Q1. Finland is continuing performing good with improved profitability versus last year, while lower revenue negatively affects the profitability in Sweden. The profitability in the Norwegian operation was more or less in line with last year. Henning will come back to more details on each country later in the presentation.
Our pre-tax profit was NOK -95 million in the quarter, slightly better than last year and at normal level in Q1. Moving to the balance sheet end of March, our total balance is NOK 5.4 billion, compared with NOK 5.9 billion end of December. The changes since December is mainly variations due to seasonal effects and also some currency effects. Goodwill and intangible assets was NOK 2.9 billion end of March and is reduced by NOK 110 million since December, and that is mainly explained by currency effects. The working capital was slightly lower than December and in line with normal seasonality. Our interest-bearing debt in the quarter has been reduced by NOK 110 million, mainly explained by normal repayment of bank debt and also reduced leasing debt.
Cash position at 31st of March was NOK 551 million, compared with NOK 610 million in end of December, which means that we have reduced our net debt with NOK 51 million in the quarter and net debt is now at NOK 1.1 billion. equity ratio is 48% at the end of March. As mentioned, Q1 is slow season, and in terms of cash flow from operation, we normally tie up our working capital in the first quarters and into Q3, as production is gradually ramping up for high season, which is Q3. Q1 is naturally affected by low season and low profitability.
However, our cash flow from operation was +NOK 17 million, which is solid in this quarter. Compared with last year, it's -NOK 40 million. However, last year included a positive effect from reduced working capital since we had an extraordinary sale of inventory in Finland of NOK 110 million.
Net financial activities, -NOK 96 million, which is more or less at same level as previous quarters and consists of repayment of debt of NOK 38 million, leasing payments of NOK 43 million, and net finance of -NOK 17 million. Our financial position end of March is robust. We have a cash position of NOK 551 million and also an unused credit facility of NOK 200 million. The remaining repayment schedule for our bank debt is approximately NOK 110 million in 2021 and NOK 150 million the next coming three years. Our bond has maturities in September 2024. To sum it all up, the financial performance was at normal level for quarter one, which is a low seasonal quarter. Henning will now go through the operational business and the market update.
Thank you, Dag. As Dag said, we continue to see good performance in Finland. The revenue was somewhat lower than last year. This is explained by the one-off effect of sales of inventory last year. Results are slightly better explained by improved financial performance within rail construction. We are also very satisfied with the order intake in Finland so far this year. Of course, with the contract of NOK 420 million we received for Joensuu rail yard April 1st. We have also won several smaller contracts in rail construction during the quarter. The order book is down by NOK 1.2 billion compared to same time last year. NOK 400 million is explained by a stronger Norwegian crown. However, the main explanation is the fact that we have produced on two big alliance contracts during 2020 without closing new alliance contracts into the order book.
The cancellation of Maintenance Area 5 contract is, of course, also impacting the numbers, and the cancellation was due to mistakes in the request for tender and the client need to re-tender the contract. We are, of course, planning on to win this contract once more, as we did last September. The tender pipeline in Finland is solid, however, somewhat lower within the rail construction area. This is explained by a high tender activity in quarter one this year, where we have won almost 50% of the volume that has been out for tender. The tender pipeline is looking strong also going forward in rail construction with the tender pipeline being NOK 2.4 billion higher than the same time last year.
We are also in the closing phase of the development phase of the Crown Bridges project, and we expect the city of Helsinki to take a decision on that project during second half of 2021. If approved, it will be a significant contribution to our long-term order book in the Finnish market. The low order intake in Sweden in 2020 are starting to show in our revenues and, of course, also in the EBITDA of minus NOK 35 million. The improvement program in Sweden continues with the goal of bringing the profitability back to satisfactory levels. The profitability on the projects we have won during the past 21 months is good, and we need to confirm this trend through a good construction season this year, but also by winning new contracts in rail construction as this is needed to succeed with our target of returning to profitability in Sweden.
Q1 has not been very active on the tender side in rail construction. However, this will pick up going forward. We have announced two wins on civil construction during the quarter and also another win after the end of quarter. This has been important to secure the activity level in civil construction this year, and we see that our hit rate in civil construction has increased this year. We have also seen a high tender activity within maintenance, and this will continue going forward. 2021 will be a very important year for us to confirm the competitiveness of the Swedish maintenance business by winning new contracts in the Swedish market. In Norway, the revenue and results are in line with last year. Well, that was a bit too early.
In Sweden, we still see a strong tender pipeline, although somewhat lower in rail construction, but this is within normal fluctuations. The long-term outlook is strong and confirmed by the new National Transportation Plan from 2022- 2033. This is planned with an increase in the spend by NOK 176 billion compared to the former National Transportation Plan. What is equally important for us is that the funds allocated to maintenance and upgrades of the existing infrastructure is increased by NOK 40 billion- NOK 165 billion. This is an increase with 30% from the current levels. This is a core segment for NRC Group and also a segment where we are very competitive. Let's go to Norway. In Norway, we see revenue and results in line with last year.
Growth and better results in the rail construction division is offset by somewhat lower activity and hence lower results in the civil construction area. We have a sharp focus on improving the results in our demolition and recycling business. It will still take some time before we see the measures into improved financial results in our accounts. The win in civil construction of the access tunnel to the new Skøyen Metro Station is a very important win for us to gradually get back to more normal activity level in our civil construction unit. We have also won several smaller contracts in this segment during the quarter, so the order situation is improving. The tender pipeline in Norway remains strong. It's increasing within rail construction.
One big effect is the fact that the first maintenance contract is out for tender in the Norwegian market, and that will be submitted in quarter three this year. As in Sweden, the proposal for the new National Transportation Plan confirms the long-term outlook. Also in Norway, we are investing more into maintenance and upgrades of the existing infrastructure. The expected growth in this area is almost 50% compared to the current budget this year. This is much needed to make sure that the railway system stays competitive in the transportation of goods and personnel and of very high importance for NRC Group in Norway, as this is one of our core segments within rail construction. To sum it up, as always, quarter one is a low activity quarter and revenue and results are in line with last year.
Cash position is strong with the end of month balance of NOK 551 million. Performance in Finland continues to be good, while we are working hard to improve the profitability in Norway and Sweden to more satisfactory levels. We have had some important wins in 2021 with the access tunnel to the Skøyen Metro station in Norway, with the Jousenoja rail yard in Finland and several civil construction contracts in Sweden. This has been important to secure the activity level throughout 2021, but we still need to strengthen our long-term order book. The tender activity will remain high and we see a strong tender pipeline with lots of attractive projects to compete for. Short-term, we are reiterating our EBITDA guidance of a EBITDA margin between 1.75% and 2.5%. Long-term, the positive market outlook is confirmed by the new National Transportation Plans in Norway and Sweden.
If you want to participate in our Q&A session at 10:00 A.M. today, please refer to our stock notice for participation details. Thank you for your attention.