Good morning. My name is April, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Alimak Group conference call. Please note all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session.
If you would like to ask a question during the Q&A session, simply press Star followed by number one on your telephone keypad. I would like to hand over to Chief Executive Officer of Alimak Group, Mr. Ole Kristian Jødahl. Mr. Jødahl, you may now proceed.
Thank you and welcome to this 1/4 four call for Alimak Group then. With me today, I have, as always, Thomas Hendel, our CFO. If we turn to the next page, we see the agenda, and we will, as usual, then go into the 1/4 and also have a look at the full year and end off with a Q&A session. Turning to next page, please, and the business highlights for the 1/4.
The number one priority for the year has been to deliver margin improvements. I'm happy to say that we could also do this in 1/4 four, which means that we have delivered the second step of the New Heights program, the margin improvements.
This was also the year where we started to implement the division strategies leading us on to the phase three of this New Heights program, where we should be in a profitable growth phase then, as we said, from 2022 and towards 2025.
The focus will continue to be, as we have been driving it now for some while, on, of course, further profit improvements, organic growth and also acquire growth going forward. We launched, as I also briefly mentioned in 1/4 three, this new scaffolding transportation system within the construction division. It's a system which helps provide scaffolders with a more effective installation and dismantling of scaffoldings. I'm coming a little bit back to this later.
We also continue to drive our BMU business improvement program, and I'm happy to see that we had some positive developments also further down in the 1/4. As announced yesterday, we are then also launching a strategic review of the wind division, which could also include a potential divestment. I'm coming back to this a little bit later.
If we turn to next page and the Group quarterly summary. Overall, as I said, a solid and good 1/4, but also as expected. Order intake increased 8%, up 5% organically, and driven by very strong organic growth in construction and industrial. We also had strong organic growth on the service side, with up 14% in the 1/4.
While Wind reported a drop as expected and as we have seen throughout the year, and again, driven by the exit of tower internals and also a challenging market in China. Revenues increased by 10%, up 7% organically. Strong organic increase in Construction, Industrial and BMU. Again, Wind due to the lower order intake throughout the year also having a negative effect in this 1/4.
EBITDA increased to SEK 143 million, up from SEK 86 million last year, and margin improved to 13.9% in the 1/4, very close to our financial target range. It's mostly driven by higher volumes and, of course, strong cost control, but also our ability to take care of our pricing and secure a strong gross margin.
SEK 42 million should be noted, was booked in 1/4 four 2020 for the New Heights program. If we turn page, and then we move into BMU. Overall, I would say a solid 1/4 for BMU order intake increased by 7%, up 2% organically. Good equipment order intake in Europe, but a little bit softer order intake, in general in the 1/4.
But we should also note that this is, as with also most of our other divisions, you know, we have quite significant swings month to month and 1/4 to 1/4. You shouldn't read out too much. The overall importance is the trend and that is still continuing in a very solid way. Service has been a very important part for BMU throughout the full year.
Revenues increased by 33%, up 26% organically, driven by strong equipment revenues in Europe, but also higher service revenues across all regions. EBITDA ended at SEK 29 million, up from a loss of SEK 3 million last year, giving us a margin of 8.7%, and again driven by higher volumes and good cost control.
We also do have a positive One-Off effect here of SEK 5 million in the 1/4. Yeah. There is also some swings here 1/4 by 1/4, important to note, but it's a positive and solid trend in the right direction. If you turn page and some further business update on the BMU side. We continue of course to drive our activities to improve sales and profitability.
We are far away on the profitability side from where we would like this division to be, and also to have a stable and solid more order intake and business development. That's why we're also now increasing our efforts with products for low and Mid-Rise buildings. As the division has been focusing more on the high-rises, that is a vulnerability of course.
This will give us a better and a broader addressable market within this business. Further, as of first of January now, I have assumed the interim head role of this division. Cameron Reid, who was interim for a while, he was intended initially to be head of sales in construction, and we wanted to start to drive that stronger now.
Therefore, he has moved there and I will lead this division while we then are searching for the permanent solution. Further, we have also decided that we will rename the division name from BMU, Building Maintenance Units, to Facade Access, which is now done as of now, you could say, to better reflect what we're actually doing within this division.
If you turn to next page and construction. Another solid 1/4 for the construction division. Order intake increased by 5%, up 3% organically. We had strong parts sales in Europe and also a continuing strong development in rental. Revenues increased 13%, up 12% organically, and strong equipment revenues in Americas and part deliveries in Europe. Europe is mainly the reasons behind this.
Strong EBITDA of 55 million SEK, up from 25 million SEK last year, and a margin of 19.1%, and supported by higher volumes and our good cost control, which leads to a good Drop-Through. If you turn page. We have the launch of the new scaffolding transportation system that I mentioned. You know, for all divisions, product development is now very important, and so it is for the construction division then.
We have, as a group, a leading position within the hoists range within the construction market. We do have a lot of potential within the areas we call transport platforms and mast climbers. This is clearly an area we are now focusing on to develop, but also of course, other type of relevant products.
Then this STS 300 scaffolding transportation system is one example of what I think we can do as a group forward in being closer to our customers and providing solutions which make their day more safe and productive.
This is a new system where you actually can use these trolleys or cages to move all the way from, you know, a storage place with a truck down to the construction site. There you connect it to the mast, you lift it up, you empty them, and you send them down again and up with the next one. The same system going back and forth. It's basically the full flow from storage place to the construction site and back again.
This reduces the need for people, and it will also make it much more safe. Yeah, we have already started to taking orders and of course have a big hope for this forward. I think it's a good way also, you know, displaying what we expect to see more of in the coming years. We turn page to Industrial. Industrial also delivering a solid 1/4 four.
Order intake increased by 32%, up 29% organically. Higher order intake in both new equipment and service. Good contribution from emerging markets. We see solid demand in most customer segments and geographies. Revenues increased by 11%, up 10% organically. Higher volumes in both new equipment and service sales globally.
It's of course driven by the, you know, good order intake that I've had throughout the year. EBITDA increased to 53 million SEK and a margin of 19.6%, up from 17.1% same 1/4 last year. Also here, supported by good volumes and our cost control. You see there is some volatility from 1/4 to 1/4.
This is, you know, what I'm pointing at, it reflects all divisions and it reflects the group that you will see due to the contract and project type of business that we're having. You will see some volatility also going forward. The underlying trend is positive. Yeah, we expect that also to continue. Next page, please. SL-H.
Yeah, also of course for industrial product development is important, but also, you know, this division is focused towards a lot of different segments. That segment and customer perspective becomes very important. This is an example of where we designed and launched a product manufactured in China for the Chinese market and the neighboring markets and focusing on cement, steelworks, and power plants.
It's a product, you know, for a specific geography and for specific segments. When we do it like this, we see that we are successful in a very strong way. We have sold much more than what we actually thought we could do, and the trend is just continuing. It's very encouraging.
In addition, we also have traction technology in the group out of an acquisition made in Norway 2014. That we're also putting more focus into now, and we have had some very nice orders and good development also in that business. We see really that focus and way of driving the business is paying off.
We move page, and we turn to Wind. Wind continued to face challenging market conditions in China, and we also have still the effect of our decision beginning of the year to take out the tower internal business. The order intake decreased 15%, less than what we have seen throughout the year, but down 18% organically.
Again, driven by tower internals, the effect in the 1/4 was SEK 20 million, and the full year effect was SEK 82 million. On the revenue side, the reduction was 25%, of course, driven down by the low order intake beginning or throughout the year.
The tower internal impact in the 1/4 was SEK 24 million, and it's SEK 111 million full year. We have now taken most of this, but we still will have some effects in 1/4 one. EBITDA ended at SEK 6 million, down from 21 last year and a margin of 4.7%, of course, very disappointing. We also do have some One-Offf in this result. Operationally, it's actually quite a bit better.
Of course, you know, it is with the lower volumes, it is tough to constantly offset. We are continuing, and we are determined that we can manage that going forward in a good way. Turning page. As announced yesterday, and also as I've said before, we evaluate the group's business portfolio on a regular basis, focusing on profitable growth, long-term value creation, and strategic fit with the group.
It's now become the view of the board and also group management that the Wind Division may have a better and more favorable development with a different ownership. That's something we would like to explore. The Wind Division has a strong and leading position within its business.
It delivers solid profits within the wind sector, and it's also part of the renewable energy sector, which is of course, as we all know, having a very bright future. The wind division, as we see it, has little strategic and operational fit with the other divisions in the group. We also believe that it might be better for the wind industry to consolidate within that industry, that this may be more belong there.
That's why we now have initiated this strategy review, which could then lead to a potential divestment. The aim is to have concluded this by the end of the year. Then we will see how and when that, you know, we have something more to say, we will come back on that one.
With that, I leave to Thomas. We turn page to the financial summary, and Thomas will take us through some pages.
Thank you, Ole. As always, a recap of the performance in the 1/4 and the full year now. And highlighting this fourth 1/4, I must say is the revenue and what we, the strong deliveries that we managed to do.
This is actually the highest revenue 1/4 since Q4 2019. So it's a strong 1/4 also in an historical perspective. And also as Ole mentioned, the Drop-Through is nice down to the EBITDA margin of 13.9% in the 1/4, which is very good and a strong performance also on the bottom line, and continuous strong cash flow, which is very important. I will come back to that.
Going into looking into the full year now with this, you can see that the full year volumes picked up during the year, and also now, which is very positive, and I'm very happy to report back that we have a gross margin improvement throughout the year, which, with also this, let's say challenging circumstances and conditions, it's very good that we have been able to keep up and even improve the gross margin level, which is a key for us.
Improve bottom line approaching our financial targets after this year. Next page, please. Earnings summary. EBITDA strong, combination of the gross margin and also the SG&A level lower than the year before. So which comes down to the bottom line there. The financial net in the 1/4 is not representative.
It's actually some negative currency effects, but the interest net year over year is improved. The tax rate for the full year ended up to 25% compared to the 24% the year before, but it's actually reflecting our country profit distribution. Next page, please. Results for the period. Yeah, simply to look into the earnings per share, it's actually up 68% now for the full year, which is a good development.
But of course, not the level that we are happy with. In the long run, we should continue to improve from this, but this has been a good year with improved EPS growth. Next page, please. Cash flow.
Cash flow from operations, SEK 139 million in the 1/4, mainly from improved EBITDA in the 1/4 and for the full year. For the full year, it's a combination of a strong EBITDA and a reduction of net working capital. We have been able to reduce some of the overdue receivables in the 1/4, which is encouraging.
We continue to focus on our payment terms and new contracts. That is basically our summary of the cash management actions, high attention on the overdues, and also execute payment license in our projects, which we have been successful in. Once again, a very good cash conversion for the full year, which I'm very happy with. Next page, please. Net debt.
Net debt, now we have the leverage at the end of the year of 0.55, which is a historically very good level and a strong level for this company. It's a combination of the low net debt from the operational cash flow, but also the higher EBITDA result. Now we have more than SEK 2 billion set in our utilized credit facilities.
The dividend proposal, as you might have seen, is the SEK 3.30 per share versus the SEK 3 per share that we had last year as the proposal. We have the repurchase of the 450,000 shares done according to our mandate, just to report back on that.
A very important messaging from us is that our capital allocation priorities remains. Investing in profitable growth is number 1 to continue to work and also in more intense with M&A activities, and also that we will continue to pay out according to our dividend policy. This time is actually 58% on net income with our proposed dividend for the AGM. With that, thank you, and back to Ole. Next page, please.
Thank you, Thomas. We are at the summary. I'm pleased with the 1/4 and the group is moving in the right direction. We promised margin improvements and that was the aim for the New Heights program phase two and that we have delivered.
We feel now that we are ready both from a capital structure from a financial perspective, you know, result perspective, but also from a you know, stability more in the organization to start to move into phase three and driving stronger, profitable growth. The strategic review of the wind division is, of course, something that we will now focus on going forward. That will be an important activity for us.
Well, it's also, you know, we are now set for growth and the focus going forward, even though there is, of course, still a continued uncertain macro environment, both with the risk for further inflation, of course, interest increases, but also effects on the supply chain. I think, you know, in the main areas, we will still manage this in a decent way.
We will continue to focus on the basics for our business, driving, you know, the product development side, increasing our range and the speed in the product development. We will continue to drive our service penetration. We've had a strong year in service, and we've had good, as a group, good development over time.
Still, it's a lot of potential, and we will continue to further drive this. Accelerating further our efforts in R&D and digitalization, we believe that is very crucial also for our industries. We have made some nice steps this year, and that will continue.
You know, with our balance sheet and capital structure now, we really feel that we are also ready to do much more on the M&A side, and that will be an important part for us also now entering 2022. Our most important asset in the group is the people, and they are the ones that have actually made this year.
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for delivering us all in 1/4 four and also that we delivered upon our plan for this year with the New Heights program. With that team on board, I'm sure we are well set for 2022. With that, I say thank you. We move to next page and the Q&A.
Thank you, speakers. At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Jødahl, I turn the call back over to you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening in. Till next time, thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.