Good to go? Okay. Good morning. Thank you for coming to this presentation, quarterly results for Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding for the fourth quarter. There. I thought what I would do is to just share a few slides, overall reflections, and then I'll hand it over to CFO Christian Berg, who will then give a little bit more into the details of the quarter as such. A bit of a backdrop on 2019. It's been an interesting year in many respects. We are exposed to the global market, and of course, there's been some pretty hefty happenings during the year. You look at the geopolitical picture that we've been up against with trade wars, discussions between U.S. and China. Of course, if it's not impacting us, it's at least high on our radar because every measure that is taken will potentially have a significant impact on our business.
There's also been a few other things happening during the year. If you look at the general shipping market, the ClarkSea Index increased by somewhat by 24%. We don't have a lot of direct shipping exposure, but we have a lot of indirect exposure through our customers. Of course, it's pleasing for us when our customers' markets are moving in the right direction. Climate-related measures have really been coming in with strong force. I'll come back to that a little bit later. Of course, the IMO 2020 implementation and the lead-up to that at the end of 2019 was a very important period in terms of how were we able to adjust ourselves, or particularly, Wallenius Wilhelmsen able to adjust themselves to be ready for the IMO 2020 rules. Looking at the financials, it's been in many ways okay.
We've had a good net result, but we've had a mixed bag throughout the year when we look at the various businesses that we have. As I said, Christian will come back to the quarter in more detail. Some strong financial gains, predominantly driven by changes in value of Hyundai Glovis and in Qube. Landing at a net profit of $150 million for the year. We've also had a share buyback during the year, which has been well received as far as we can understand. Overall, the return on our shares in terms of called capital appreciation and dividends has been 6%. I don't think that is fantastic. It's not a disaster, but we would have hoped it to be more than what it has been.
If you can allow me to talk a little bit about the group and a few of the businesses that we do have, I would like to single out three of them. As you can see from this chart, we have a lot of very interesting businesses that we are extremely proud of, and they are all, in various degrees, very well-positioned in the markets in which they operate. I thought I would single out three of them. The three in a way larger businesses that we have across the group being Ships Service, starting with that company. We've had a pretty flat top line during the year. At the same time, we've had considerable improvements in our EBITDA. We've had an EBITDA improvement in WSS of just shy, I believe, of 20% during the year, which is quite good. Where do we take that from?
Well, Marine Products, which is the largest part of the WSS group, has performed well, but we've had a much more significant recovery within the agency sector. It's still far to go, so percentages are easier to manipulate when you come from a small number, but it's been quite a significant recovery within the agency sector. A sector which we will have continued focus on going forward and where we believe we have a strong position. WSS, in many ways, represents a little bit of the backbone of our international platform. They have operations in close to 70 different countries. We have people. It's a company that we own 100%. This is where we use all the company. We really use to develop the company culture and to pitch on the overall goodwill marketing of the group around the world. It's important in many aspects.
3,300 employees at the end of 2019, 200 people less than at the end of 2018. Why? We're just working on the efficiency 365 days a year, 24/7. This is a business you just can't do a project, leave it for two years back and come back and see how it fares. You really just have to be on it every single day. A very interesting business exposed to the global merchant fleet. NorSea Group, moving on to then another company. Not 100% owned, but we have a 75% shareholding. A very interesting platform within offshore supply bases. Top line is a little bit down.
Profitability is quite okay, but it's a profitability which is a little bit hard to measure from year. Well, it's not hard to measure the profitability in itself, but when you compare the profitability from year to year, it's a little bit more bumpy. One of the reasons is that this is a company who is much more, call it project-based. We have a lot of property. We buy properties, we sell properties. We have specific marine-related or marine logistics-related projects. That goes up and down. If we look at 2018, that's when we had the majority of the military exercise, which of course inflated the top line and also part of the contribution. We are working very, say, focused on positioning NorSea Group to be, say, the greenest and the most emission-free solution towards this industry.
Which we believe is important going forward, and where we believe we have every, say, possible tool there is to actually position this company to be by far the supplier of choice within its industry. Moving over to Wallenius Wilhelmsen. They had their presentation yesterday. As you know, we are a 38% shareholder. I have to be somewhat careful about what I say. It's the company that should present their details. They have a leading position within their industry. It's a fantastic company. It's a somewhat challenging market. There's been decline in volumes on the auto side. The top line or the volumes transported by Wallenius Wilhelmsen last year is even further down than the reduction in the overall, say, automotive segment. Why?
Well, it's a combination of the decline in the market itself, but also commercial priorities, where the company is focusing more on lifting what they believe is the right cargo to lift, rather than just lift cargo for the sake of lifting it. The contract with Hyundai Motor Group was renewed, as all of you probably have seen at the tail end of the year, which is good, giving another period. I think we just have to keep in mind, there's a lot of questions around Korea. We've been in Korea now for many years, 17 years or whatever. The Hyundai Motor Group has been a fantastic customer, providing us with a loyalty and, call it a runway or a visibility, which is second to none. The company is working on its performance improvement program and doing that well, which was presented again yesterday.
This is an industry where the margins are different than what they used to be, hence the company needs to adjust accordingly. Coming back to what I said on the first slide on IMO 2020, there's a lot of preparations that needs to be done in order to make a system like Wallenius Wilhelmsen ready with a fleet of 125-130 ships, ready for that transition. They've done that well in a lot of areas, both from a technical point of view, also in terms of how they have interacted with their customers. There was a cost at the tail end of last year related to this, the most important thing in my mind, of course, is that they are able to deliver a smooth service going into this.
There's been a lot of ships in the industry in total who's been stuck, haven't been able to get the right fuel, et cetera. The company here has not really had that as an issue at all. They've done a great job in that respect. When we look at the overall market for the car and ro-ro segment, there is definitely over capacity at this point in time, but there is a low order book. At least in my mind, we can question ourself, or the industry can question themselves, why should we order new ships now given the low profitability? Not the least, the technology risk that it poses, going into the future with new regulations in terms of sustainability and emissions. On that note, I will segue a little bit into sustainability, because that's high on our radar.
I will just focus on a few, say, overriding areas where we are focusing as a group. Decarbonization of shipping is going to be and will be also for us a major focus area. I would not necessarily call it a challenge. I'm sure it will be a challenge as well. This is where a lot of us needs to keep our eye on the ball. It's an area where we, who have a vision to be a shaper of the maritime industry, want to be in the forefront. I'm sure there will be significant technological opportunities, et cetera, representing themselves out there, where the overall industry is slowly but surely being able to move and comply to future regulations. We, as Wilhelmsen, we are definitely going to be on that ball and hopefully well ahead of the pack. We have a lot of projects.
You know about the Massterly project with autonomous ships. We're working on different hydrogen solutions. We're using digital platforms or digital competence to see how we can use that in the future, but also how we can actually use it today to slowly but surely just do those initially incremental changes, which will hopefully lead to more substantial changes into the future. Responsible employer. There's no doubt that we want to be, we believe we are, and it's a fundamental of what we've been doing for more than 150 years. We are a competence-based organization. Of course, we are focusing on the responsibility. What's happened? Responsibility for our employers. It goes beyond, say, the internal.
We need to look at who do we work with, how do they work, how do we interact, how can we make sure that the partners are actually also delivering up to the values that we would like to see? There will be and there are significant opportunities within, call it, the space of renewable energy. We have a lot of interesting things going on. Whether they will mature or not remains to be seen, but we see that space as a very interesting space to be in from a Wilhelmsen Group perspective. Last, as you can see on the right-hand side there, marine litter and pollution or ocean. We live in this environment. We need to do something in that space as well.
The question is, what can we do with our own organization and operation, and what can we do with the force that we have with all the customers that we have to actually improve that space? We believe there is a fair amount that we can do. Okay. Working. There. Another part, I'll soon hand you over to Christian. With this range of businesses that we have, we also need to then look at constantly how can we develop the products or services that we are offering to the industry. There's many of them. Here are just a few. I'll be quite quick. We've had 3D printing up here several times. We're now in a situation where we have started to deliver certain products to the industry.
We have six customers who have signed up to be, call it, not testbeds, but early adopters who are really keen to see this work in their operation. That's pleasing to see. We've really taken a step from, call it, idea to actually implementing this in the marketplace. There's a picture of this rope. This is what we call a snap-back arrestor, a pretty fancy name. Mooring lines has been and is an issue for safety. When you moor a vessel and the lines snap, it's a tremendous force which are being released, which have caused a lot of deaths, but also a lot of injuries. This solution takes away a lot of that tension. That's in the marketplace now and is very well received, and I would call it a pretty cool development.
We have a pretty nice film that you can see on that one. We're working in the digital space to utilize most ships have a lot of sensors. There's been an issue with connectivity. Connectivity is slowly but surely improving. We are making solutions so that we can actually utilize that information to benchmark better so that all our customers or the vessel owners can actually utilize that information in order to decrease the overall fuel consumption. Which again, is leading into sustainability, et cetera. I'll probably leave it there if Christian is going to get some time. I can't be here without talking a little bit about the coronavirus. Why? Every person I meet, more or less, they ask me, "How is that impacting you?" This is another example. This is a site that we have made on our website.
You can click in on every single port, see the status, what's happening, utilizing proper information from local authorities. What's happening? It's extremely hard to say what financial impact this will have, and I can't say much about the virus in itself, but the measures that are being taken have impact on our operation.
Ports have been closed. People are asked to stay at home. If people have been in an Uber taxi with a Uber driver who has been identified as a carrier of the coronavirus, that individual is asked to stay at home in a form of house arrest, et cetera. This has ramifications. You can read about car plants being shut down, spare parts not being able to be produced in China, et cetera. It will have an impact. We have 200, roughly, employees in China. Of course, it is their welfare that is the priority number one, and then we need to just make sure that we can deliver our business in a proper way. With that, I am trying to get into the next slide. Press it. Now I can press it. There. Thank you. Which is the outlook. I will not read it.
You can read it by yourself, but in general terms, it's a little bit as last time. We believe in stable development. There are certain uncertainties out there, but we believe we have a robust company. We can weather many storms and also potentially take use of opportunities that might arise. The coronavirus is a new uncertainty that we don't really know exactly what will lead. Thank you very much. Sorry, Christian, if I took too much of your time. That's okay. Okay. I'm on trial here. Thank you very much, Thomas. Good morning. We'll see. I made it. I will try to walk you through the quarter. Some of the things happening in the fourth quarter, some of the things for the full year.
Give a brief comment on some of the issues, and of course, you can see the full quarterly report and the annual statements in the report released yesterday. Going through some of the points for the first quarter. Top line, basically flat, down 2%. Oh. EBITDA for the quarter, okay, but still down from the previous quarter. That's on an annual basis, okay. Come back to the different issues. The performance underlying is good. We do have some adjustments for the quarter in the different areas, which I'll come back to. For the associates, Thomas has been through and walked you through the Wallenius Wilhelmsen side. It was an increase in the fourth quarter from the previous quarters and even from the previous quarter last year. We did have a reversal of a gain in first quarter gain in NorSea of $5 million. It's an accounting issue.
It's not a sort of cash issue. For this quarter, we do have a decrease in the value of Hyundai Glovis shares and Qube shares of $25 million, giving us a net finance loss of $22 million when taking into account unrealized value, positive value of the FX hedges that we do have a positive contribution from due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar. For the quarter itself, $0.05 per share. We'll see. For the full year, total income is flattish, down 2% for the year. A margin improvement and underlying good operation from all businesses, giving us an EBITDA of $149 million. A contribution from associates basically being Wallenius Wilhelmsen of $49 million. From the full year, the Glovis and Qube value has increased by $61 million throughout the year. We do have a minus.
That's the full write-down we did on the shares and the holding in Cervitec that we did, give or take half a year ago. The value of Cervitec after that is booked at zero. The full year EPS being $2.46. Stepping into Marine Services, and Thomas commenting on several of the drivers. Income year-over-year is up 7%, quarter-over-quarter, 1%. There has been a good quarterly sale of products, partly the IMO issue of products related to IMO. Both the third and fourth quarter had those impacts. Agency, as Thomas described increasing their margins, running their business even better than earlier. Ship management second half having quite an increase in the vessels on full technical management and increasing their wind and offshore activities. Activities under the Maritime Services, basically having an okay path going forward. EBITDA for the quarter-on-quarter, down 28%.
That's mainly due to several non-material and provisions being done in the fourth quarter. Bearing in mind that the fourth quarter margin is 15% and comparing with the previous quarters, similar in or around the same level. Happy with the numbers being delivered on the underlying basis. Supply Services income is up quarter-on-quarter, some down year-over-year. Thomas gave basically the big explanation being the military exercise last year. If you do quarter-on-quarter, it's basically a bit up. We do have some asset value adjustments in the quarter. We do have this $5 million reversal that we had in the first quarter of this year. For the year, okay, as Thomas also described, we will see and we will expect volatility in numbers, both top line and contribution from NorSea in particular, since we do have a project-based business running in NorSea.
This is not sort of what you see in the accounts directly. What you see in the accounts directly compared to Wallenius Wilhelmsen is the contribution that you see every quarter. 17 this quarter and so on, quarters going back. We just tried to make a picture showing the stock market values and the development of the stock market values of the shares in Wallenius Wilhelmsen. Quarter-wise, a 26% increase. That's basically the number of shares that we do hold times the share price. Also we have made this graph showing this is what you see in the accounts on the holding and investments, showing the total value of the Hyundai Glovis shares on the hand of Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding is $412 million. On the hand of the minorities of Treasure, it's $148 million. $150 million is contributed to the Australian engagement.
Basically, the Qube shares a liquidity portfolio of $102 million. You might even see the last number there, the deep blue being a cash at hand, $31 million. This is the total mark to market of the financial assets and the value of the shares in Wallenius Wilhelmsen by year-end. Taking it to the year itself, the cash flow through the year, starting at $140, operating well in all areas, giving us positive contribution, of course, and mainly from the Maritime Services being the, by far, largest cash contributing unit. Also, we do have cash flow from investing activities, that being dividend from Hyundai Glovis, sale of some shares in Qube, and also the sale of some assets in NorSea. Positive contribution on basically or actually all areas in the quarter. We did do a share buyback, and we did pay dividend.
Dividend at $26 million and share buyback at $30 million. That's the first spend. Reducing debt of $68 million and currency and reducing interest rates on $41 million, ending up at 13 more million dollars at the end of the year than the beginning. Balance sheet being in total $3.2 billion. Pretty flat development in equity. I will go sort of flat and very solid, I will point. The debt maturity also including now the leasing IFRS 16 showing a pretty healthy coming from the CFO status. Not too much to fight towards in the beginning of the next three years and a long-term debt portfolio mainly coming from the NorSea funding, as we do have all the debt being funded in the different areas and the different daughter companies. As you would have seen in the report released last night. Board is proposing a dividend for the year.
A first dividend of NOK three per share, and a potential second dividend of up to NOK three. On level, that's basically in the higher end of where we have been the last four years. We have NOK three, NOK 2.5, NOK 3.5, NOK three. It's on average. In total for the four years that we have seen, and bear in mind that this is a conversion of NOK to U.S. dollars, so it's the total amount. The payout in total dollars has been just above $30, and then the $50+ if you include the buyback of shares. The suggestion to the general assembly being then up to or at least NOK three per share in the first dividend and, as you can see the potential box there, being a potential of NOK three more and converted into dollars in this graph.
That's the financial status for the fourth quarter and also the financial status for the year. Larger report, you can have it either outside in paper. I think we still have a couple of paper stapled for you, but probably the best thing would be to download on our website. With those words, I'm happy to conclude and say thank you very much to the audience following us on the webcast. Thank you very much.