Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Finally Friday, reporting day. Welcome to the presentation of Omda's achievements for the fourth and final quarter of 2023. The report and a copy of this presentation will be found on Newsweb or can be downloaded from our website. This webcast consists of a good 30-minute presentation followed by a live Q&A session. You can type in your questions at any time, and we will attend to them as soon as the presentation ends. A recording of this webcast and, suitably also, a transcript will be available on our website shortly after this presentation ends. We are not alone in this world, thank God. I'm happy to be here with my longtime colleague and the CEO, Sverre Flatby. Enough about that. Time to get the show on the road. The stage is yours, Sverre.
Thank you very much, Einar. I'm happy to present the highlights of the fourth quarter. Before that, for those of you that are new, I'm the CEO, Sverre, and I also have Einar, the CFO, with me. We are also shareholders through a common investment company, so you know that. Let's go to our company. Omda, what is Omda? To take the fundamentals first. Our vision to create a safe and healthy world is important. We have a role that affects millions of citizens and hundreds of thousands of users of different types of software components. Our mission that has given us the possibility to become a leading player here in the Nordics is a very specific strategy and a unique one. We have focused specifically on healthcare, specialized healthcare, and Emergency. That has made it possible for us to become a leading player.
So, if you look at healthcare, where are we as a company? I think that is important to understand our numbers and what we do and our strategy. One way to divide healthcare into five areas is this: primary care, community care, long-term care, Emergency care, and specialized care. If you look at this, you will see that there are different types of ways to handle projects and software in the business. In the primary care, you see that there might be churn, there might be short projects to change systems, while on the down to the right here, you will see that within Emergency and specialized healthcare, it's a quite different business. This is the answer: why is the top line so predictable over decades for Omda? We are very happy that our strategy has put us in that position.
I think it's important for you, when you look at our numbers, that you understand that this is part of our business. And then again, what are we actually doing? The specifics. I cannot go through all the details, but just to explain the specifics of one of the business areas. Emergency, which is the one top left here, is the biggest one. And what we do in all of these business areas and niches is actually to create a value chain of components supporting different users. And if you think about it, how important it is to you, if you are a patient, that if an acute situation happens, that something those who handle that do the best they can. And how can we help them as Omda?
Well, the call taker, 911 call, obviously the software that you have working with that process, it would help you to make a decision faster. That is one user group. Then you have the ambulance in the picture here. In that car, you have two user groups. You have the one that has given the order to drive the car, which is important to get to the right place in the right time. And secondly, you have the man or woman in the back of the car helping you as a patient with a critical situation. Then again, the information should flow to the acute receiving hospital. Then again, you have another user group, the management. If you have many ambulances, maybe 40 ambulances, is there a way to do the same high quality of the business using 38 ambulances, for instance?
And that is analytic software that makes that happen. So, if you think of all of our niches, all of our software types, this is the way, our strategy to create niches within niches and put up value chains that support the complete business. So that is the similarity with all of these business areas, while they are completely different when it comes to disciplines. For instance, Medication Management, cancer, is a quite different thing compared to Emergency. On the other hand, in there as well, you have these value chains. So I think it's important, when you read our numbers, that the recurring revenue streams that we have created within these specialized areas is what gives it possible for us to look at a very predictable future with high visibility going forward. So, what has happened when you look at the last years and our development?
You will see that our long-term recurring revenue, and also you will see from the fourth quarter, that the recurring revenue part exiting 2023 is very nice, 78%. And of those four types of income we have, the one number one is obviously number one in any aspect. And the other one, number three there, is also in a way semi-recurring, as we call it. It will happen in a way anyway, with all of those customers we have around different countries. They always have some extra needs, some support help, etc., that they pay for. That is the reason why we can have visibility for more than 90% for instance now, going into 2024. We have a predictability when you look at the top line of the company, which is very important these days, obviously. So, and who is actually paying those recurring revenue streams?
Well, there are very important specialized entities in the healthcare sector. Some examples here to the left. And those solid counterparties, they always pay their bill, so there is no risk there. And we have many, more than 600 contracts, meaning there is no binary threat to the business. It's highly diversified. And these types of systems are tied into complex workflows, meaning that they will stay there, sometimes for many decades. And that's why also the low churn we have had historically and continue to have in the fourth quarter and going forward is because these mission-critical systems are there to support people, and the business case to change them is really not there. That's why we have this long-term predictability. So, that is an important summary of the aspects of the business, the fundamentals. And then let's go into the specifics for the fourth quarter.
A very good thing: our top line, NOK 109 million compared to NOK 98 million in the fourth quarter 2022, is very good. And looking back to what I just said about the recurring revenue streams and the business stability, this is very important and obviously the most important thing for us in the quarter. That means 11% growth is good, and also the annual growth with reaching or passing our target of NOK 400 million, getting to NOK 415 million for 2023 in total, is a very good number. And with all those recurring revenue parts of that business, obviously this is the most important thing. And then we have the EBITDA. Also, compared to the fourth quarter in 2022, -21% and 19% this quarter, 40 percentage points better. However, we would love to have a higher EBITDA than 19%.
But on the other hand, there is a reason for it, and we will use some time in this presentation to go through the EBITDA and the cost items. And one of the cost items, the COGS has been developing good. If you compare the COGS from 2022, the fourth quarter was 6.6%. And then going to the salary cost, we will see that this is the high part that affects the EBITDA, which we will go through in a minute and also focus on in the financial part of the presentation. On the other hand, the other cost was 22% in the fourth quarter 2022, now at 15%, which is a normal guidance that we have had for years. And we think that all in all, if you look at the fourth quarter, a profitable growth, most importantly the income growth, a slightly lower EBITDA than expected.
However, we see that the run rate into 2024 gives us comfort. So let's go through this and just a rough way to look at the performance over the year. You all know that we have had a margin improvement program. In this program, we have gone from 8% EBITDA in the first half year of 2023 to 23% in the second half year. So the average between Q3 and Q4 is obviously here better. So I think into 2024, it's a different story, which we will explain further later on. And then how, in the day-to-day life, are we going to achieve and trim our EBITDA margin? Well, the decentralized model has helped us find or identify specific areas that are relevant, that will make the margin better over time. So we will see that we measure our businesses.
You also see that on the left side here, we have something called Connected Imaging earlier on. Still in this quarter, we will report Connected Healthcare and Medical Imaging as two business areas. While going forward, from the first quarter 2024 and going further, we will report this as one business. The reason is, there is also potential there to increase margin, because the combination of Medical Imaging and Connected Healthcare customers, more than 90% of the projects have the same customer, same project to deliver, meaning there are synergies there. So, this is how we are going to do it on a day-to-day basis in the organization. Then just to explain the cost item in perspective here.
If you look at the period before we IPO'd and start in the bottom of this slide, you will see that our COGS, those things that we sell from other types of software other than our own, was about 10% and has gradually, over time, come down to 6.9% on average in the second half year in 2023. Our target is 5%, but this is going the right way, and I think that is also important to see. And on top of there, you see the green one that other cost, which is all of the rest of the ordinary cost, is also coming down. And now, in the second half of 2023 and also the fourth quarter, it is a very good number there. So that means that leaves us with where is the actual challenge. And the question is, is it a challenge or what is it?
And as you see there, 55% roughly in the second half of 2023, while our target is 50%. And all of you probably understand, if you take the right column here and add 50%, 15%, and 5%, you will get 70%. And that's how we should reach 30% margin. So that is in a more long-term perspective. And then specifically, what do we do to reach 30% margin? Well, with the 55% in the second half year of 2023, there are actually two main activities to solve it. One thing is, there are still some large projects going on with external consultants. And that is a deliberate thing. These are important and give us recurring revenue over decades. So we have decided to move on with high speed there.
A natural item would be to postpone it, to reduce the cost, but that has not been a good idea in our heads. So that is one thing. We will reduce it, have already done it, meaning it will gradually be reduced in the first quarter. And then secondly, and please I will remind you, if you have seen our three last quarters, we have actually performed in the upper part of our guided interval of organic growth of 5%-10%, actually closer to 10%. And for the year, we are actually on 9.5%. So, if we just manage to handle that or do the same thing in 2024 and do this one action on the consulting side, then we will reach 50% personnel expenses compared to the top line, which is good and which is our target for the year.
So this is how we work and how we are going to trim the margin going forward. I think it's important now, entering 2024, that we are back to a very good business, is a profitable business. We are going to focus more on the combination of elements of our business model. Starting in the bottom, to remind you all, within this healthcare sector is a very strong place to be, with an annual growth of 10%-12%. Also, on top of that, number two, we have the specialized software healthcare Emergency strategy, giving us these long-term and low-churn businesses. On top of that, obviously, with these recurring revenues, we do these activities with current customers giving us the 5%-10% organic growth. The last quarters and hopefully going forward, stick to those close to 10%.
And then, on top of that, most importantly, since these predictable areas are predictable, to grow much faster, you need to do M&As. And we have successfully gone through 15 M&As in the past, and we will continue and have high activity at the moment to make sure that we can acquire good companies and add them to our current businesses, and also probably create new business areas over time. So we will not forget that we are a growth company, but we had to use 2023 and the transition to 2024 to secure a good EBITDA and cash flow that can handle our bond, which also is a good thing for us with a tap issue and possibility to further growth and acquisitions. So, to summarize the industrial logic and the history and the plan, as you all know, we were a Norwegian small startup many years ago.
We were able to export software. Then we, with help from a private equity company, were able to start growing through M&As in 2015 to 2021. Then after the IPO, we had several acquisitions and used that time to secure the centralized model and, of course, then start with these margin improvement activities that have been successful so far. So what are we going to do now? Well, we will focus on Europe primarily, although we will still have and have growth in the U.S., for instance. Then over time, also add acquisition targets that will create a possibility for us to win with our very unique strategy with highly specialized components also worldwide. Having said that, in the left or right corner, in the bottom of the slide, you will see the priorities going forward.
We will obviously work with organic growth, profitability, cash discipline, and acquisition in that order. So we will make sure that we will follow the plan and create a good future for all of us. So, Einar, that was the final financial summary of the fourth quarter and what I think is going to happen going forward. And now it's your turn to dive into all the juicy details. Thank you, Sverre. Yes, let's have a look at the numbers. And again, I remind you, before we go into numbers, you can type in your questions at any time and we will attend to them around the quarter's time. Right, first and foremost, coming back to this, this is an all-time classic, the recurring revenues. And you see that they are growing steadily also in the fourth quarter.
We see there the annual recurring revenue, the run rate, annual run rate, NOK 326 million as of Q4 2023. That's an all-time high. I remind you, they come from more than 600 customer contracts in more than 27 countries, public sector or public sector-like institutions or customers, and with very little churn. We are a diversified business. The largest business area is Emergency. It was last quarter and still is. Almost 50% of the business is linked to Emergency services. And then Connected Healthcare, Medical Imaging will be combined, represent 20%. And then you see LIMS and Women and Child. LIMS is actually now growing past Women and Child. And then Health Analytics and Medication Management, a small but beautiful jewel in our portfolio. We also see the geographical spread still very much continue to be dominated in Sweden. That's the largest country. And then Norway, 19%.
You see the rest of the world is starting to compete to be the second largest country, if you like. Then Finland and Denmark. The rest of the world, biggest countries, there are Spain, U.S., and U.K. We get that question from time to time, so now you know. The revenue mix continued to be strong, so not only a strong top line, but a good quality of earnings. We see that there's still strong recurring revenues and then strong license sales in the quarter, and also strong professional services. You will see that hardware is coming down, partly as a priority, but also remember we sold the Finnish scanner business and also the Swedish one one year before in the third quarter, and that contained a lot of hardware. So that is where we are on the quality of earnings.
As Sverre presented, there are significant cost improvements compared to Q4 last year. In total, we have reduced costs for the quarter by NOK 16 million. I would just like to remind you, the ambition for the Treinta margin improvement programme was NOK 60 million. We are not that far away, I would say. Significant cost improvement on COGS. It keeps coming down. We think it will continue to come down, but this is a marathon, not a fast sprint. Over time, it will come down. We will maintain control on other OPEX. If you read the report, you will see that our non-recurring items are approximately NOK 1 million. If you want to make your own adjusted EBITDA, you can do that. As usual, we don't make any adjusted EBITDAs. The cost is coming down significantly.
We are almost there on COGS and we are there on other OPEX. We are a bit closer than you think on salary and personnel as well. The reason is that the difference between the Q3 and Q4 is the payment of holiday pay in Norway and Sweden. That explains most of the difference between Q3 and Q4 this year. Some more use of consultants, approximately NOK 2.5 million more in consultants this quarter. There's also an FX effect in the salary and personnel numbers. While we consolidate numbers in Norwegian krone, reporting currency, most of the employees are in other currencies than Norwegian krone. As it weakened through the quarter, that translated into NOK gave you a higher number. All right. We are indeed approaching the 30% EBITDA margin on an annual basis.
Stark improvement from Q4 last year was -21 and +19, so a 40 percentage point improvement from in one year. It may not be perfection, but it is certainly good progress. Ideally, that said, our ambition was that the EBITDA should have been a few percentage points higher, say 2%-4% points higher, to be perfectly in line. That is, again, linked to salary and personnel and for the reasons I mentioned, increased use of consultants and some other. We are down to a couple of NOK 2 million, really, if you adjust for the holiday payments. All right, CapEx. We are investing in our own growth, in our own software, as well as in new businesses and capitalized expenditure. That is R&D for all practical purposes, very little PP&E.
It's about on the same level as last year, comprising 13% of sales this year in the fourth quarter compared to 12% in the same quarter last year. But by and large, we're there. And year to date, we are exactly on the same level as we were last year, just a little south of 10%. And we have guided on 10% as the standard. So I would say bullseye. All right, Net Working Capital. We were disappointed about the development last quarter. Part of that was linked to the Treinta accruals, one-off, fair enough. But part of it was really we had focused on top line growth and improving the margin and maybe lost the cash a little out of sight. Not anymore. We've seen improvement from Q3, from -5 to -11. Our target is -10 or better, so we are there.
But we are not as good as last year. So, -4, it should be four percentage points less in working capital compared to last year. And this is a priority going forward to improve the Net Working Capital as well as cash conversion, overall cash discipline. But we noticed that we were lagging a little behind our ambitions when we received the third quarter numbers mid-November. And we started to improve, but it will take some time before it showed. It improved somewhat in the Q4, so not all that bad. But we will continue to focus on this going forward. And hopefully, you can see some even stronger improvement in Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 this year. All right. As Sverre said, we are continuing to build this business. And it is a marathon. And we will continue to focus on this market with the online growth.
We will continue to focus on specialized software within clinical disciplines and Emergency. We will continue to address public customers or public sector-like customers. We will focus on organic growth and do it profitably. Then we will do acquisitions when the time is right and the opportunity is there. But we are in no rush to do a bad deal. All right. That really takes me to the concluding remarks. Our focus right now and our priorities is to maintain the strong organic growth. As Sverre mentioned, we have enjoyed above 10% for the last three quarters and around 10% for the past year. Our ambition and our guiding is still 5%-10%, but our ambition is to continue to be in the upper end of that interval.
That said, part of the explanation for that ambition is, of course, also we are in a high inflationary environment. We will continue to profit from that. We get some tailwind from the inflation. We will continue to improve the margins by maintaining strict cost control. We will on other OPEX, but we're not about amputating the fingers. It's more than cutting your nails. We will continue to improve. We will continue to improve on COGS quarter by quarter, step by step. Right now, primarily the task is about replacing third-party software with our own IP. Then last but not least, we will continue to focus on salary and personnel, external consultants, and maintaining a tight cost discipline.
If the cost is maintained around these levels or maybe a little less and they will increase over the year with inflation and we can grow the top line by closer to 10%, well, you do the math. Cash discipline, absolutely. We will focus on cash. I even thought maybe I would dress in black today to honor Johnny Cash, but I didn't since it's spring and I wear a gray suit. We will focus on cash. That is net working capital. That is sending out invoices. That is getting paid upfront rather than from customers rather than later. It is on cash conversion. It's all about that. That is a top priority. It links very well with the last bullet point there, M&A, because strong cash conversion also is funding for further acquisitions.
Not only the bond loan or equity, but also funding from our own operations. There is high activity on the area. We have several discussions going on. But again, we will remain disciplined. Patience, not often seen in finance, but probably a good way and a beacon to navigate after. So we will remain disciplined. But when the opportunity is there, we are able and we are willing and we can act fast. So stay tuned for something to happen.
All right. Before we venture into the Q&A, if you are on in Omda, subscribe to our newsletter. Just scan this QR code with your phone and it will take you right to the subscription page. All right. Time for Q&A. Are you ready for some Q&A, Sverre?
Of course.
Of course. All right. We have nine questions thus far. I'll start with the most recent one so I can sort through them. This one is for you, Sverre, from Matthew. It's: "Dear Sverre and Einar, thanks for your hard work. I'm curious about private market multiples currently. Nordic markets have never looked hotter for software companies. Could you give us some numbers on what multiples you are like right now?" Or maybe it was for me after all.
I guess so.
It was a long question. All right. The multiples in the private market, it's a bit hard to tell.
I think you will see that there is quite some distance between the expectations of multiples by the entrepreneurs and the private market and what is actually where transactions are going. I like to say that if you use the multiple EV sales, I would say enterprise value is the most financial definition. But when you speak to an entrepreneur, it's very often emotional value. And our job when we negotiate is to bridge that gap.
I'd say we have always been doing acquisitions on, if you use the EV sales, between 1 and 2. And I think it can still be there. But that said, how we really do the calculation is an NPV calculation. So the EV sales is more a proxy than anything else. But I'd say it would be still within the 1%-2% range where the transaction would be done. But expectations are and have been higher.
All right. And this is for you, Sverre. It's from Henrik Larsen. And it says: "How will you manage to mainly use internal resources for large projects going forward? And what will change from today?" So.
Yeah, that's a very good question. As you know, there's one big project actually that we also published publicly. That was the contract in Denmark. This contract, we have through 2023 finalized the main delivery of that contract, meaning that the whole country, Denmark, is now using our blood management software. But this project alone would probably, if you had removed external consultants from that project alone, it would probably have been on 30% EBITDA in the second half of 2023. However, there are new things to come, as it always is, new functionality, replanning of the project, added components, new versions, etc. These processes are short-term, the planning process. Then it will be transferred to ordinary operational activities.
The reason why I think this is not going to be a challenge going forward is that we don't have any of that type of big projects going on at the moment that are not handled by internal resources. That is actually the answer. We've seen it since we were already into the first quarter, that the reduction has been going on through the first quarter. The finalizing of the planning process in the big project is over, meaning that from the second quarter and onwards, this is not there anymore. I feel quite comfortable that going forward, our team with employees will handle our current business without help from consultants. Although there are always smaller things, but not that type of amount that we are talking about in 2023.
Thanks, Sverre. I'll continue with a question that is down the same alley from Matthew. He or she writes: "You are focused on cost and salaries. Aren't you afraid of losing your best talents or failing to recruit new ones?"
Well, I don't think the reduction here is not really about reducing the number of employees or reducing the cost as is. It's more like most of the cost items are external consultants. So I think we will be able to secure that we can stick to our current business without doing any type of project like the Treinta margin improvement project, where we had to reduce the number of employees and focus on cost items like that. So the main challenge is actually just consultants. So I'm not afraid of that. And we work hard to make sure that we measure how employees' feedback are at the moment. And we will take action based on that. But we don't see that the personal expenses to our current employees is the problem. It's actually the consultants.
Okay. Thank you, Sverre. I'll continue with the question. The very first question that came in from Carl, thank you, I hadn't forgotten you. It's about capital allocation. That is, I guess, what this running a business is really all about. It's a long question. I'll take it in parts. The first one is: "Thanks, Sverre and Einar, and thank you. How do you think about various ways of allocating capital? Internal investments versus M&A versus share buyback?"
Okay, let me take that one first. CapEx is the investment for our own development. We have guided that on approximately 10% of total sales or total revenue. M&A and buybacks, M&A, really, as long as we have the capital, there isn't a limit to what we can buy. But we have said maybe to grow ideally 10 percentage points organically and 25%, 30% percentage points through M&A in the year.
That is probably the pace we could keep up with, to give you an idea. Share buybacks should be seen in conjunction with M&A, because when we do a share buyback and we have our own shares, but we can only use, we prepare to and plan to use them for partly or complete settlement in future M&As. The bond agreement doesn't allow us to use them as dividends and to null them or to void them, just for your information. Then the follow-up question: "Do you follow a certain return expectation, a hurdle?" We have a weighted average cost of capital of 12% that we use. "And how do you prioritize between these levers?"
I think I addressed that in my previous comments.
Okay. The next question I think can be for you, Sverre. This is from Kari Koivuniemi: "Thank you, guys, for another solid quarter." Thanks, guys. The question: "Looking back, have you achieved the hurdle rates or goals you had for 2021 and the 2020 acquisitions?"
Yes. As you will see, for those of you who know our internal margin expansion methodology called Buy Integrate and Build, you will see that the last acquisition we did was still within the two-year framework of margin expansion. So the Health Analytics business area still has some work to do to finalize through the first half year. But other than that, we will actually see that now the business is an ordinary organic business, run decentralized with separate business area managers and with no other integration activities than the one in Health Analytics, which is a small part of the total. So in that sense, I think you can expect that this will be predictable going forward.
Okay. Thank you, Sverre. Another question from you, for you, from Henrik Larsen. And it relates to the project, to the LIMS and Emergency projects. And he asks: "When will your large customers' projects for LIMS and Emergency end?"
Well, the big impact area is on the LIMS part. The Emergency is much smaller. And that part is an AI project, which is important. It is, let's say, a modern engine supporting the 911 operators with an AI engine that could help making decisions much faster. We added a cooperation with the University of Valencia, which also we have to pay part of that cost. But that is a smaller part. The big one is the LIMS. And that is now a project that will go on until 2027.
On the other hand, as I mentioned, the project now is more transferred to the ordinary business. It's not a huge, big separate project, because the major milestone has been reached in 2023. Namely, that the big capital regions of Denmark now are using the software in production. And we also got feedback from those who run these blood establishments that this solution is working well. That means that activities going forward in the period from 2027 is more about adding new versions, new components in the next three years. After that, you'll probably see 10%-20%-30% years of recurring revenues and add-ons and the same activity that we normally have after delivering such a big solution.
Okay. We have six more questions pending. Again, we have a good quarter. If you have any more questions, just type them in as we continue with the next question. That is from Emilia. Emilia, she wonders, Sverre: "What is driving the strong organic growth guidance for 2024? Or should we not consider what you said, the guidance?"
Yeah, that's the word guidance is important. I understand that. We have, I mean, the five years guided on the 5%-10%. I think the trend, what we see now, is that we have been in the upper part, as you've seen the last three quarters, even above 10%. And I think the reason is that many of those installations we have and the volume have obviously increased, is that these added components, added integrations, etc., seem to continue. So we'll still guide on 5%-10%. But I think what has happened in the last three quarters is not going to dramatically go down. So in that sense, I'm more comfortable with thinking that we are closer to the upper part of the interval.
Okay. And then we have a few questions on M&A. I'll try to group them and take them in one. And the first one from Carl Kanger. And he says: "Looking back at the M&A deals after the IPO, what are the learnings in any? And is there anything that changed your approach since the last deal?" So have we learned anything, Sverre?
Yeah, we learned all the time. Even we were too old men, we still learn, definitely. And I think the most important thing we talked about is that we probably made a mistake by not decentralizing before we IPOed. Because we see now that the methodology of Buy Integrate and Build inside one business area is much, much easier to handle, easier to scale. And it's transparently easy to measure, because it doesn't disturb other business areas. So in that sense, the most important thing we have learned, and I think that partly comes from many of our American shareholders, that to learn from the biggest one that work with the acquisitions.
So I think that part is, in my head, the most important learning. But also, we've seen that some of the activities might be done faster. We are now in the position, because we have worked the last two years with digital tools, to be more efficient when it comes to further integrations. For instance, automatic invoicing routines, etc., that we could add faster into the new acquisition targets. So in that sense, I think we are positioned to, with the decentralized model and digital tools, be able to get more out of acquisitions in the future faster.
Okay. And continuing on M&A, from Emilia. And she wonders: "Do you expect M&A to materialize near-term? And is it any segments that you are more likely from an M&A perspective?" So what are your thoughts, Sverre? What can you say?
Well, you always said, Einar, that it takes two to tango. So obviously, we have to get into an agreement and agree with the owners of those we discuss with. So we cannot anticipate exactly where we're going to hit the first ones. On the other hand, I see that from our database, which has very high value in my head (we have been working on that since 2005, almost 20 years), we have an overview of these targets. And we have dialogue with many of those. And I've had that for years. And they are adding elements to all of our business areas. So we still have possibilities within all areas. And so I don't think it depends actually more on the actual negotiations with the parties, rather than a decision we make or a trend within any business area.
So I think near-term (the question is what is near-term?), but we have had hard work in 2023 with M&A as well, although we haven't closed any deals. We have very good dialogue with many of those. And I think we will end up doing or entering that growth of 25%-30% M&A growth annually going forward. That should be our goal, based on what I see from the database at the moment. And whether it comes in one or the other business area, you will see. So looking forward to telling you, Emilia.
All right. One last question on M&A. And that is: "What can you say about your M&A efforts since the refinancing of the bond? And how are the expectations of the sellers?"
Well, one thing is we have some cash available. We have a bond with a tap issue of NOK 500 million. We have the ability in that contract with possible earnouts and seller credits . So that means we have a war chest here to do what we are supposed to do. I think we are in the position to do that, to continue and do exactly the right deal at the right time.
That means also, I think, we are able to acquire both small and bigger compared to ourselves. Probably not bigger than half of our own size. But at least, if you look at it that way, we have the possibility financially to do it. And we see from our target lists that there are a lot of good targets there, both small and bigger ones, that could bring us fast to the targets we are working for.
Okay. There are three pending questions. Again, you can continue to type them in. Now, one from Oliver. And Oliver is writing: "Why did you not have better visibility on Q4 salary cost by Q3? In other words, why the surprise on OPEX and CapEx? And what are your margin cost expectations for Q1?" I'm not sure I subscribe to the idea of not having visibility. Maybe we haven't been clear on it. I'll repeat that. In Omda, we are accounting according to GAAP, and to Norwegian GAAP, Swedish GAAP. It's always the way that you accrue for holiday pay throughout the year.
When a person takes vacation, when you're off work, you're not getting paid your salary for natural reasons. That is when you're using the accrued salaries or accrued holiday pay instead of the salary for that period. That is classic NRS and NGAAP, S-GAAP. We have always used that accounting method. It could be discussed should we use an average method more IFRS-like. It could be an alternative. We have decided to continue to use the method, but be very transparent, very clear about it.
And it also makes it very much easier for you to do a comparison from one year to another. If you constantly change the accounting practices, it's probably more confusing than convincing. But that's the way it is. So absolutely nothing new. You saw the same thing in 2022 and 2021 and 2020, etc., etc. But as most of the employees are in Norway and Sweden, the country is having this arrangement. It, of course, becomes maybe more dominant. But you can read that out from the personnel, the pie chart in the report, where our FTEs are located. So that is one thing. On CapEx, I don't know if the production can bring the PowerPoint slide up again. Thank you. And there you can see CapEx is routinely higher in the fourth quarter, actually for the very same reason, for the holiday pay.
When people are on vacation, they are not on work and they're not coding. When they are back to work in the fourth quarter, very few holidays and public holidays and vacation days, they are at work and they are coding. We have always guided. We saw it was 12% last year, same quarter last year, and 30% this year, around the same number. We have guided on 10% on an annual basis, not necessarily on a quarterly basis. Right? So that was just what I wanted to remind you about. When it comes to guidance for the first quarter, we haven't guided specifically for a quarter. We are trying to show you the ambitions for the year. Sometimes, I mean, like a sale can slip from the 30th of March into the 1st of April and it shifts a quarter.
That is not what you should worry about. But expect to see distribution of costs, etc., to follow the same pattern from quarter to quarter, from year to year. So that is what I will say to you. And there may be some natural variations. But we stated the ambitions for next year and our priorities. And I think, for instance, on organic growth for the last three, four quarters. And on the cost side, we are indeed working on our ambitions and our priorities. And again, maybe not perfection, but certainly good progress, in our humble view. All right. 4 more questions. And this is also related to economy. So I'll take that one from Anonymous.
What revenue level you expect the 30% EBITDA margin to become easily achievable in terms of scaling the cost base?" And I'd say yes, I don't think we would need to scale the cost base particularly on COGS. On the contrary, other OPEX, we are running a lean organization. And we are invested heavily in digitization. And we see the benefit from that so that we scale better, say, on accounting, etc., and on IT. And on the selling personnel side, I think we're more or less there.
Remember that during the cost-saving program last year, a lot of people that embarked on journeys on new careers, they were on the administrative side. So yes. And for you, Sverre, there are three more questions. And two from Matthew. First, dear Sverre and Einar, could you enlighten us how the tender process, length, and bidding process works in your markets? Do discretionary price increases trigger a contracted churn?
Well, I think the most important thing when we talk about tenders in our markets and in our business is that since these systems normally are in production for decades, there are very few tenders. Our strategy is actually to avoid tenders, because we would rather acquire systems to grow than participate in tenders because they are so long. We have examples of tenders going on for decades without ending in a successful installation, many of those actually in Nordic regions. So that has brought us to an idea that we stick to the organic growth we have when we plan it, that the organic growth comes from our existing contracts with existing customers. So the 5%-10% is coming from there.
If a tender comes up that will work for some years - and we have some examples, the one in Denmark is a good example we have had installations there for decades. And then they ask us to participate. We will obviously participate in that type of tender. But that was one. Maybe the next one is in 20 years in blood management. So the long-term thing is a very good thing when it comes to recurring revenue streams.
But when it comes to getting new customers through tenders, that is really not our game. So I think that is the most important takeaway. But there are sometimes, to specifically say how long will it take to participate in a tender, normally the customer plans for a couple of years a tender. They use a couple of years to carry the tender through. Then you have maybe a 5-10-year implementation phase before you get after 1five years, normally then, to an ordinary operational status. That is why our strategy and our budgets have not focused on tenders at all.
Okay. two more questions. two minutes left. Both questions from Matthew. Just the first one, as a follow-up on the tender question, how do your counterparties view Omda's use of debt? Do they ever express worries about the leverage?
The company is, after all, providing mission-critical functions. Yes, we are. On leverage, make it short. If we reach our ambitions for 2024, we will have a net debt to EBITDA of around 3% and a net debt to recurring revenue of 1.3%. That should be considered a high leverage, and certainly isn't in the contract with the bondholders. No, they haven't expressed any worries about our debt level.
Okay. The last question from, well, here comes another one. Also from Matthew, quickly. Dear Sverre and Einar, now that the business structure is decentralized and segment CEOs are taking care of the day-to-day operations, what are your duties and days like?
Of course, we will focus more on the growth side. At the same time, follow up each business area. That these trimmings, that the tasks there to secure the 30% running EBITDA is there, is obviously still a priority. On the other hand, we will focus more in 2024 on the acquisition side, because we see there are large opportunities for us. We will continue to be a growth company as well, a solid and profitable one.
Okay. We are a bit overdue, but a very last question. That is related to share buybacks. The question is, do you see Omda stock better buy than further M&A activity?
I think it absolutely makes sense to buy back your share when you think it is when the price is below the value. In the new contract with the bondholders, we can buy up to 50 million of our own shares. It's a revolving facility. You probably don't have to be a fortune teller to try to guess what will be suggested for the next AGM. But again, sometimes the acquisition packages are tempting. So there is a competition.
All right. All about capital allocation. Seems to be no more questions. Thank you very, very much for your questions. Very much appreciated. We hope you have enjoyed this presentation. Please tune in again on the 14th of May when we will present Omda's results for the first quarter of 2024.
Until we meet again, thanks for watching. Take good care. Enjoy your weekend. As always, stay safe.