Welcome to the Addnode Group Q4 presentation. During the Q&A session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Johan Andersson, and CFO, Kristina Elfström Mackintosh. Please go ahead.
Hello, and welcome to the presentation of our Q4 report for 2023. I'm CEO, Johan Andersson, and with me, I have our new CFO, also, Kristina Elfström Mackintosh, that I would like to introduce. So maybe let's start with Kristina, who is the new one on the company. Maybe a short introduction before we move on with the Q4 report.
Yes. Thank you, Johan. I've joined Addnode in December, so I've been there almost two months. Kristina Elfström Mackintosh. I'm not new to this type of roles. I have over 20 years experience as CFO for listed, non-listed companies, scale-up, startup, et cetera. I came recently from Charge Amps, which is one of the Swedish leader manufacturer of EV chargers, both software and hardware. Just before that, I was CFO for Lagercrantz Group. I have also a background as a chartered accountant. A little bit private, I got three kids that just left the house. I got a husband and a dog that is still with me in the house. So that's it short from myself.
Thank you, Kristina, and hopefully you will be able to meet Kristina more going forward. With that an introduction, let's move on to our Q4 report. And today, we'll talk about Addnode Group in brief, talk a little bit short about 2023 before we move into Q4, reminding us ourselves what we're doing within sustainability, and then we will open up for questions. So what is Addnode Group? For you who are new to us, we are an international group. We are providing digital solutions for sustainable design, product data management, digital twins, also for efficient management of real estate and facilities, and effective public administration. We are a highly decentralized structure with 2,700 employees in 20 specialized companies. Our business is supported by global trends such as digitalization, automation, urbanization, and sustainability, driving the demand for our digital solutions.
You're looking at our geography, big regions for us are Sweden, USA, U.K., Germany, and then we are also active in some, in totality, some 20 countries, predominantly in Northern Europe and U.S. is where you will find us. So looking at 2023, we continued to invest in new companies, software and employees. We implemented cost-efficient measures, and we merged operations. At the same time, we noticed some major changes in the world around us that we had to handle. Looking at net sales, it increased with 19% to SEK 7.4 billion. We continued to increase our recurring revenues, which amounted to 70% of net sales. Addnode Group became an even more global company with acquisition of Team D3, and USA is now our biggest geography compared to net sales.
We started 2023 strong, but Q2 and Q3 was tougher... made in the PLM division. Q3 was a quarter with growth, stable earnings, and solid cash flow. The strengths of our companies, their ability to act quickly in a changing world, and that Addnode Group's strong financial position and the strategy provide a good foundation for continued sustainable value creation in a changing world. We ended the year with growth, stable earnings, cash flow. Net sales increased by 16%, -1% was organic. If you adjust for currency, it was -2%. EBITA amounted to SEK 196 million. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 228 million. The Lifecycle Management division reported growth of 10%. The restructuring program initiated in Q2 has had the intended effect, and the EBITA margin has improved.
The [Product Data Management] had an organic growth of 3% and an improved EBITA margin. The Design Management division reported growth of 24%. The currency said 66%. The acquisition of-
I'm sorry to interrupt, Johan. Sorry, your sound started to be very bad. So let's take a quick break and see if we can figure it out.
The conference call will start shortly. This call is being recorded.
Hello again. Hello again. It seems like there were some technical troubles with the line, and the sound was disrupted, and now it should be okay. So we will start over again with the Q4 2023. The opportunity to hear all again about it, so we'll make this work. Sorry about the technical... So looking at Q4, Addnode Group ended the year with growth, stable earnings, and cash flow. Net sales increased by 16%, of which -1% was organic. Currency-adjusted organic growth was -2%. EBITA amounted to SEK 196 million. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 228 million. The Product Lifecycle Management division reported growth of 10%. The structural program initiated in Q2 has had the intended effect, and the EBITA margin has improved. Adjusted organic growth of 3% and an improved EBITA margin.
The Design Management Division reported growth of 24%, with currency-adjusted organic growth amounting to -6%. The acquisition of Team D3 has had a positive impact on earnings. While demand in Europe was stable, demand from the construction and real estate market in the USA remained weak in the quarter. To respond to this weaker demand, staff reductions have been implemented in the USA, which has had a positive effect. With that, I would like to hand over to our CFO, Kristina Elfström Mackintosh.
Thank you, Johan, and we are going to look at the breakdown of the revenue. We have three graphs that I would like to take you through, and you start at the bar graph from the left, you can see the breakdown of the net sales for the fourth quarter over the last five years. The substantial growth, which mainly consists of the last two years, and the current quarter amounts to SEK 2.1 billion, compared to SEK 1.8 billion from here. Johan also mentioned that it's a 60% growth. You can also see that the major part of the revenue consists of recurring revenue. That increased by about 21% from last year, mainly driven by acquisitions, and the organic growth of recurring revenue was -1%.
That is relating mainly to the lower sales of three-year agreements. We can also mention that we are meeting strong comparatives from last year, which was the strongest quarter in the history of Addnode. Going to the middle graph, the pie chart in the middle, we can see also that recurring revenue continues to form a stable foundation of our business model and now amounts to 70% on net sales. Our service revenue grew by 12% in total this quarter and consists of both services relating to our software and customer-specific solutions. The organic growth was slightly lower than last year by -1%. Then the last graph all the way to the right, we can see that presents a breakdown of sales by geography.
And also, we can see now this is the second quarter in a row, America has become the first market of 32%, followed by Sweden, 27%, U.K., and Germany, above 10% each. We can also continue now, and we're gonna look at some of the performance of the three divisions. I'm going to hand over to you, Johan, again.
Thank you. Going deep, our three divisions, starting with Design Management. Increased by 24% in the Q4. Adjusted to currency effect, organic growth was -6%. EBITA was SEK 98 million, and the EBITA margin declined to 7.9%. Operations in the divisions, looking at it, you can see that, Symetri, providing design, BIM, and product data, began to note weaker net sales Autodesk solution in the second quarter of 2023 already, mainly to the construction industry customers, and particularly in the USA. This trend continued throughout the year, and is deemed to be a result of uncertain economic conditions and a lower volume of three-year subscriptions.
Although net sales improved compared with the second quarter, the sales cycle remained longer, and three-year subscriptions are lower than in the same period last years in terms of new rates and renew volumes. However, the comparative figures for division are high, following record-breaking sales of three-year agreements in 2022, mainly driven by USA and the U.K. However, the number of customers and the annual value of the underlying contract database, which is the basis for future contract renewals, are continuing to increase. We still see great potential for selling Symetri's proprietary software to growing customer base. U.S. and European Operations report a stable volume for the quarter and sales in line with the previous year. The cost reductions made in U.S. operations, which were announced in the third quarter of 2023, have had an effect.
Team D3, acquired in July 2023, have had a positive impact on earnings. Service Works Global, which provides digital solutions for facility management, and Tribia, which provides collaborative solutions for construction and civil engineering, deliver stable growth driven by the acquisition of POS2 in the first quarter of 2023. So as we have discussed earlier on, there are some changes being made in the business model for our Symetri business that are a world-leading partner for Autodesk, and we've made sense to spend some time and walk you through the changes that are expected to happen going forward. Autodesk, with the partner to Symetri, has announced the transition from current reseller model to an agent model. The new transaction model will be introduced gradually, starting 2024, and is expected to be fully implemented by the end of 2025.
We continue to work with customers to identify the solution that best suits their business, and we'll continue to provide quotes, implement the Autodesk solutions, and provide support. Also going forward, Symetri will continue to sell for its own software and associated services, but as an agent free from Autodesk for reselling the Autodesk software. We think that the move to an agent model will demonstrate the strength of Symetri's service offering and its broad portfolio of proprietary complementary products. So looking at how will this change, just to stress, it is something that is going to happen in 2024. What will happen is that nowadays, this is an illustrative example. It's not the P&L for the Symetri, but it's an example showing you the changes going from the VAR model, earlier the reselling model, to the agency model.
That means that today, when Symetri sells an Autodesk subscription, we sell it to the customer, we collect the money, and we get a cost of sales from Autodesk, and we provide them with that. And then we saw its gross profit is what ends up, and then we get an EBITA. What will happen going forward is that instead of the invoicing the customer and getting a cost of sale for Autodesk, we will get an agency fee from Autodesk for selling the same volume. We expect that the agency fee will be at the same amount as the gross profit that we are generating from existing volume. Having said that, we are also saying that we will continue to sell our own technology and services, and there's some other third party, and that will be conducted and transacted in the same way.
So, what will happen, starting 2024, we don't know the exact date, this is something that will happen going forward, fully in 2025, is that our gross profit margin will go up as a result, and as a result, also our margin is expected to increase profit. And that has to do with that we are expecting the same gross profit, but net sales will go down. So looking at Product Lifecycle Management Q4. The Product Lifecycle Management division reported net sales of SEK 499 million, 10% growth. Organic growth was 8%, and adjusting for currency it was 2%. EBITA, we adjust for the million, SEK 59 million, EBITA margin was at 3%. Looks weak compared to the other. Organic growth attributed to PLM systems in the U.K. and Germany.
Customers are continuing to demand time-finite licensing of licenses instead of the previous license purchases with perpetual right of use. As previously communicated, structure message has been carried out within the Product Lifecycle Management division in order for the organization and cost structure. The previously communicated estimated structure cost for implementation ended, as we said, at SEK 20 million, which was recognized in the second quarter, SEK 5 million in the third quarter, and in this fourth quarter. For an expected the Process Management had a solid performance this quarter. The Process Management division increased net sales to SEK 346 million. It's a growth of 3%. EBITA increased to SEK 67 million, and the EBITA margin improved to 19.4%. Municipalities and public authorities continue to show some restraint in terms of new investments.
The number of tenders decreased compared with the preceding year, but the division's good and well-established relationships with a large public sector customer base frequently present opportunities for recurrent sales and the expansion of current assignments. Demand for divisions offering for customer-specific business systems remained favorable during the quarter. The division is and also a custom offering. So we also made changes within the structure that I would like to... Autodesk, two companies, were merged under a single entity for Swedish municipalities, an uninterrupted digital urban development process, and better conditions for sustainable urban development. It's good broad proposal for collaboration with partners as three. As part of this, we also created a new company, Icebound. Its operation was previously part of Technia, is now creating practically the digital solutions for the forest sector-based industry.
Based on its existing product portfolio, as well as its competence and experience in geographic information systems, Icebound will offer digital solutions that streamline processes and business flows for the forest industry and based industries. In January 2024, Icebound also made its first acquisition of Efficture. It's a proprietary software for forest and timber management, with net sales of SEK 2 million. And on top of that, we made a first, another acquisition to process in the Q1. The acquisition of Jetas, it's a Swedish supplier of case management system for issues and work orders, public transport and property management. It's an add-on to our company, Forsler & Stjerna , that will strengthen the offer to Sweden's public transportation sector. That's a net sales of roughly SEK 6 million. So with that, and the introduction of the business in Q4, I will hand over to our CFO, Kristina.
Yes, thank you, Johan, and I would like to continue with an overview of the consolidated cash flow. The way I'm going to do this, I'm going to start with the cash flow operating activities, first for the quarter and the year, and then going down to investment activities for the quarter and then the year. So, I hope you will follow that. So looking at the fourth quarter cash flow, it remains strong, SEK 228 million, compared to SEK 261 million in the previous year. And, the decrease from last year is mainly related to the lower operating profit, together with some increases in paid interest in the fourth quarter.
If you look at the full year cash from operating activities, we generated SEK 485 million in operating cash flow, and this was a decrease from the year before, and it was mainly due to the decrease in operating profit by SEK 117 million, and also the negative change in the working capital of SEK 125 million. Going down the cash flow, we are looking at the cash from investing activities. For the fourth quarter, it's mainly consisted of investment in development, the development of proprietary products around software. For the 12 months ending December 31st, the cash flow from investment activities was SEK 672 million.
About out of that, SEK 460 million into the three acquisitions during the year, and also include considerations to sellers for acquisitions made in previous years. That is the earn-out payments. Also important to know that we invest a substantial amount in the future products and services, and approximately SEK 152 million is relating to investment in proprietary software during 2023. Then looking how we're financing our investments and operations, looking at the fourth quarter, the financing activities, SEK 20 million is mainly relating to leasing. For the 12 months, we had an increase reflected in the full year, and the borrowings for the acquisitions of Team D3 financed through the revolving credit facility.
Noticeable that the dividend of last year, SEK 153 million, was distributed in May 2023. I also would like to pay attention that you might have read the report that you propose a dividend of SEK 1 per share, even this year, the same as last year, and that will be paid to shareholders in May 2024. Looking at the balance sheet of the group, we're looking at the balance sheet from an operating view to what you find in the report, which is the legal statutory balance sheet. We can here see that we are continuing to operate by a resilient balance sheet, which is very important for our type of business, for continued growth, both organically and through acquisitions.
You can see also that we have access to additional funds of SEK 1 billion from June 2023. And the major changes in the balance sheet is relating to the three acquisitions that we have executed during the year. You can also see that the net working capital is negative, and our business model enable us to work at a negative working capital, and that amounts to - SEK 543 million. Including in the line-item provision, taxes, and other debt, it includes the earn-outs for the sellers of the acquired companies. And as of December 31st, 2023, earn-out amounted to SEK 481 million. And we also had other liabilities to sellers of about SEK 56 million.
Net debt now at SEK 999 million was increased by SEK 536 million, as we continue to execute acquisitions. The cash position was SEK 667 million, which was an increase of SEK 67 million. And you can also notice that the dividend of SEK 133 million has an impact on the cash position. We have available facilities of SEK 2.6 billion, and we have not utilized SEK 1.1 billion of those, which can be used going forward for acquisitions and growth. Lastly, I would also like to mention that we now have repurchased shares. No more repurchase since last summer, 2023, and now hold 1,210,000 own shares in custody.
By that, we will now continue to have an overview of our sustainability agenda and also looking to three sustainability cases. You want to talk about that?
... Thank you, Kristina. With Addnode Group, we are long-term, and we continue to do what we do. So the sustainability agenda is the same, and we are still pushing for it. And we believe that the digital solutions that we provide to our customers are enabling them to be more sustainable in how they do wise choices of the materials to be used in buildings and products, et cetera, and how you create the urban environment that we are all living in. So we think that we can provide the digital solutions to make that happen. Of course, we care for our people, and with our people, it's in the environment where we are active, of course. Also, the way we work with our partners and suppliers, we want to work with the good guys.
We believe that part of the sustainability agenda is to make sure that we have a long-term financial solidity, so we can make the right choices at our own choosing, and we need to have the government to make that happen. It's the same agenda, and we are pushing for it. Looking what we are doing for our customer, we have the three examples here that we are highlighting, and you can also find them at our website. Looking at the left, you can see an example from the design divisions, where the company SWG are providing 3D models and digital drawings for the Nordic Museum in Stockholm, and enabling them to have digital documents to facilitate repairs and maintenance in order to ensure that the building will stay in their historical profile.
They also help the Nordic Museum to improve the quality of its building data, and the digital format also enables building information to be easily updated in one place. Looking at the middle of the slide, you will find an example from the company, Technia, in the PLM division. It's a digital twins of vehicle for last mile deliveries. Technia has helped the German startup, Mocci, with a virtual twin of its small pedal vehicle for last mile deliveries of goods in urban environments. Looking to the right, you will find an example from the process division, is a company Decisive in Norway. More efficient for the railways. Decisive have supported a Norwegian infrastructure company, Bane NOR, which is responsible for Norway's railways in implementing a new European rail traffic management system.
That is Norway's largest public digitalization initiative to date. By investing in a new system, Bane NOR has helped to strengthen the competitiveness of the railway system as a logistics solution. Having more people travel by train and more goods transported by rail helps to reduce CO2 emissions and increase energy efficiency. So, three good examples of what we're doing in Addnode Group. So finally, looking at Addnode Group, we have a strategy with both organic and acquisition led. We believe that the structural underlying demand for the digital solutions offered by our companies extends beyond and across economic cycles, driven by customer needs for digitalization, automation, urbanization, and sustainability. However, short-term, the current economic situation is dominated by uncertainty and restraint among our customers.
Addnode Group's strategy is to, with a sound risk-taking, capitalize on these trends by continuously acquiring new businesses and actively supporting our subsidiaries to generate sustainable value growth and drive organic earnings growth. 2023, we have continued to invest in new companies, software, and employees. In addition, we have implemented efficiency measures and merger operations to strengthen our positions. Addnode Group has become a more global company, and the acquisition of Team D3 meant that the U.S. became the group's largest market in terms of net sales. The strength of our companies, their ability to act quickly in a changing world, and Addnode Group's strong financial position and strategic advice, provide a good foundation for continued sustainable value creation. And with that, we would like to open up for questions, and thank you for taking this time.
Took a little bit longer with some technical issues, but I think we are past that, so let's open up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Daniel Djurberg from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, Johan and Kristina, and congrats to a stable report.
Thank you.
A few questions from my side, starting off, with Design Management. Obviously, we will focus more on the gross profit growth going forward. But a question is, if you have decided how you report the top line for Design Management, in 2024 and 2025 time frame, will you divide it into, you know, the VAR and the agency model, so we can keep them, separate and, and see, the development more or less, and calculate backwards, to, to see, or, and any thoughts on, on, how to, get away from the uncertainty that, a mix would create?
Yeah, we are looking into that. We haven't made any decisions on that, but there would probably be some changes in how we do report, but we would like to come back to directly how we do it. However, there are some guidance that I would like to highlight in the report. For example, we are writing there, for example, that if you look at the Symetri business, you will find that today, half of the gross profit generated by the Symetri business is from own services and own proprietary products, and the other half is from the what you would call the VAR business, selling the Autodesk business, the gross profit. And then you need to figure out how much of the design division that is not the Symetri business.
I know you are really good, so you probably will find that from public figures, looking at how much is the net sales of the Tribia and the SWG.
Yeah. Fair enough. Thanks. And may I ask you on the, I should know this, I guess, but the new transaction model, will it also change Symetri's relationship with existing clients, or is it merely new signings? Autodesk will invoice all clients, also existing.
If, when we make the transition, what will happen is that there are, for example, it will be a mix from a relationship perspective. As we have, for example, three-year contracts that are ongoing, there are installments that are going to be made, that existing contract will go on going forward. But that should not be confused with our reporting on net sales, because as we, we will still have the same revenue recognition principles, that means that when we do the switch, we will report any new sales according to the new transaction model.
Yeah.
Did you understand my answer on that?
Yeah, I, I think so. Yeah, and we'll come back to it, obviously, later on. May, may I ask you also, on, you have seen in the U.S., a certain weakness in construction segment throughout 2023, and I was thinking, you also mentioned in the report that it was, seen in, in Q4, obviously. But, but entering 2024, and I don't- I know you don't give guidance, but, but, should we expect it to stabilize in first half or accelerate? Or, and also, if possible, ballpark, how large part of the U.S. design management business is dependent on the U.S. construction segment?
Mm-hmm. Starting with the, the first, say, last question, looking at how much of the business is dependent on the construction market. In the U.S., it's probably, I would argue, almost half the business in the U.S. are addressing the, what we would call the AEC market. It's not-
Yeah
... just pure construction, the architects who are sort of depending on that. And then, looking at the growth in the market, then we also need to look at it from two perspectives. The underlying market growth, it seems like it's not getting worse, it's more stabilizing, and then let's see how much it will continue to grow. That's one thing. And then the other thing, it has to do with our revenue recognition principles, is that we also this year, as we were selling, had a mix with less three-year deals, moving to one-year deals. That affected this year.
So when we are coming to Q2 and Q3 next year, then that means that the three-year deals that hopefully were not sold that year, that we will be able to sell them next year, and that will sort of help with the net sales compared to Q2 there. But it still mean, looking at the growth, we are not expecting high growth in the market going forward. Hopefully, it will stabilize.
Yeah, that, that's fair. And may I have a last question on PLM Technia, and then Dassault reported yesterday, and they saw growth level of some 8%-10% in 2024, while double-digit again in 2025 and onwards. Can you comment a little bit on how you see in your crystal ball, is it fair to assume similar levels, or is it should, is it something impacting also comes versus?
As we are a little bit worried, we don't make any prognosis for the future, but we try to give some flavor to that anyhow. And what you can see that in a, what we would call a tough year for the PLM division, we still had organic growth of around, I think if you adjust it there in Q4 for currency effects and all things, it was 4% organic growth. And at the same time, we managed to do a major cost reduction program, increasing margins, and hopefully, we don't have to spend 2024 on cost reduction and be more focused on growth. So, but if we are able, I always kind of say we can do 5%. That's, that's as expected for us. I think we do more, I'm happy with that, but we, we never plan for more than 5%.
Perfect. Thank you very much, and good luck here, and-
Thank you!
The next question comes from Fredrik Nilsson from Redeye. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning.
Good morning.
I want to start with the PLM. I mean, you had a quite strong third quarter as well, but then you had quite a lot of licenses compared to the same quarter last year. However, in this quarter, we see that the licenses are about the same. Still, you make a really strong margin compared to what you have done historically. Have the PLM found its place, or are you happy with the performance?
Oh, thank you for that. Looking at the PLM, there is a seasonality in PLM, so Q4 should be the strongest quarter for the PLM businesses. And that has to do with, it's, still the division where we actually have the business model with more of the classic licenses. That means that you spend the year sort of talking with the customers, discussing with them, and they are probably big OMs, and by the end of the year, they are ready to sort of push the button for a bigger investment in licenses. So that sort of form, the PLM, in a normal year, it should be the strongest quarter. And I guess we can see the effect now of, looking at the cusp. So, this is a Q4, Q4 that they should be able to deliver going forward.
Okay, thanks. So then Design Management, I mean, you had the negative organic growth in this quarter, but it was a lot better than in the last quarter. So could you elaborate a bit, what was the main driving factors behind the improvement compared to last quarter?
Compared to last quarter, you will find it in the U.S. market, as we were, sort of as we described in the earlier in Q2 and Q3, we were hit by low market demand in the U.S., and also we had the big effect of the, pre-year deals transition from a mix of a pre-year deals to more one-year deals. That was also a hit. So those two were hitting us in the U.S. market. And now, as the U.S. market is probably, I would say that it's stabilizing, but still not a sort of a growing market, that's a good effect. And then we were, we're also able to do some cost reduction in the U.S. market as we were reducing the number of people reduced. That also helped on the profit side.
I think you will find that the biggest change compared to Q3 to Q4 is that the U.S. is doing a little bit better. And also on the profit side, as we said in Q3, that was the first quarter where Team D3 was part of us, and we probably had more focus on making the transaction happen there. And now in Q4, they are contributing as they should with regard to profit. And all that together makes Q4 a better quarter than Q3 for our Symetri business.
Okay, so that's the U.S. market outside of construction then getting better, I suppose, or how should I interpret?
And looking at the organic, yes. No, no, I think it's not, not from the market side, it's more that Team D3, they, looking at the profit side, they were more, I guess it was sort of what can happen sometimes when you are part of a transaction, you get more focused on the management team to make the transaction happen rather than focus on business. It's quite normal in entrepreneurial-led businesses. And now they are able to focus on the business, and then you get the profit-wise. So market-wise, nothing being changed. It's more that, that you're able to sort of do the final part of the business, making sure that you are generating the profit that you should, and that has, it's more of a profit side for Team D3. Market-wise, it's sort of still the same stable market with regards to manufacturer.
What has changed is that the construction business has stabilized, and we also see the effect of, I think it's more that, if you look it from a market perspective.
Okay, great. And, about process, you mentioned fewer procurements.
Mm-hmm.
All those things that you have done quite well, relatively speaking.
Mm-hmm.
But what about the solid demand for customer-specific systems?
Mm-hmm.
What are the reasons for the divergence in your view between those two?
So I think the reason is that, okay, we have a very, starting with the first one, we have a very strong market position at local municipalities, providing software for helping them with, building permits, environmental permits, creating, and everything that has to do with that. So that means that it's a very sticky business. So when we're saying that there are fewer tenders, it still means that we can do business with them and growing from the business that we have. So that's the first thing.
And the second thing, when we say the tailor-made solution, is that we have an offering to our customers who, there are customers in the public sector, they want to build their own systems, and we can help them build them from scratch and then take responsibility for those going forward and helping them out to support that. In that sector, with the tailor-made solutions, we have had a very strong order book this year, so we are looking with sales.
And if you combine that with a slower labor market, meaning that we will be able to keep the same people in the projects during the year, that creates a better sort of, sustainability in those projects, and that helps from a margin perspective as well, because you don't have to teach new people going into the projects, you don't have to replace them at the same rate. So that supports that business.
Okay, I see. Thanks a lot. That's all from me.
Thank you.
... The next question comes from Erik Larsson from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning. I have a few quick questions on design. So first off, my understanding is obviously that the three-year deals are down significantly versus last year, but you're still selling some of it. So would it be possible for you to give a ballpark figure here on how much three-year deals are down these last few quarters versus 2022? Are we talking, you know, 25%, 50%, 75%? Any color?
Yeah. So far, we haven't given you any exact guidance on that, and we will not be able to do that this quarter as well. It's more that we looking from a competitive perspective to our other partners that we're fighting with. But it's down significantly in the mix. It's both that, like you said, affecting the new sales of it and the mix of it. The good thing is that we will be able to sell. If we sell a one-year contract sale instead of a three-year contract, we will be able to sell that next year as well, so we don't have to wait three years for that. It's down significantly, and that's what we are trying to help with addressing and say that the underlying contract base and the number of customers are still growing.
We hope to get, I had a question earlier on, do you want to, are you gonna change your reporting in any way? We'll see how we can help to address that. I don't have any good answers today, but the only thing I can say is we're looking into how we can do things a little bit different going forward with regards to reporting.
Okay, fair enough. And then, as you mentioned, the underlying contract base, some encouraging numbers there. Would you say that growth is attributable to market share gains? Is it driven by upselling to existing customers? Do you have any drivers you see there, any specific ones?
It's a mix. So we're not saying that we are having a high growth, but there's a growth, and it's like you said, it's a mix, both that we are able, like the underlying, there's some growth in the market, but also that we are able to gain new contracts because we are also competing against other partners in the market. So the customers are wanting to work with us because they see that we have a broader offering. We can help them with services, we have complementary products that in will enhance their investments in the Autodesk platform. So yes, we are gaining some market shares as well.
Perfect. And then, last question on the, again, Design Management and the pretty resilient numbers here. Obviously, it's very difficult to predict where three-year licenses end up, but, you know, it was quite a beat to consensus figures. So I'm just curious, were you surprised yourself on the numbers and heading into the quarter, would you have guessed this outcome?
Not as good as we ended up, but there are always, we can see that you're always a little bit worried when you have a Q3 like we reported. How will Q4? There are some possibilities. And we have, if we are able, this is a business model where if we are able to sell a little bit more than expected, then you will have a good outcome on the final report, because we don't need to hire more people to make that happen. So you have a good sort of leverage on that.
Yeah, indeed. Okay, that was all of my questions, so thank you.
Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions.
Yes, we have a few written questions, and I'm gonna take the first one from Joni Grönqvist . And the question is, you have been active in the M&A space lately, when in the big picture... On how you see the M&A market, and also comment on why you have been successful in completing acquisitions.
Good question. We are continuing to be active in the M&A market, but so normally you don't see everything that we do. We're constantly pedaling under the waterline, and then sometimes we pop up and make acquisitions, and that it could be silent for two quarters, and then we do three deals in a quarter. And so for us, it's more we acquire companies from entrepreneurs who want to be part of Addnode Group and continue to grow. That's sort of our basis. It means it's very much relationship driven, and I think that's a success for us. So it takes some time, but we are able to, when we sort of meet and, are able to finalize the deal, we know that the people are the, sort of the right from a culture perspective as well.
Hopefully, what we're seeing now from a bigger perspective is that the price in the market are reaching more of a level now, where buyers and sellers both think that we're sort of approaching the right numbers. Going back a year, the sellers still thought that the price level was, as it used to be a couple of years ago, and we were saying that we were not willing to pay that. But I think we're reaching more of a level there, so hopefully we'll see some more, acquisition this year.
Right. Thank you. We have a few more questions, too, and this one is from, I hope I pronounce your name correctly, Emelie Oikarinen . And the question relates to earnouts. Is there risk with earnout that managers are solely focused on them instead of the long term?
It's always a risk, but we try to make sure that the earnouts are aligned what we both would like to do, and that is, continue to grow our operating profit going forward. And then we need to be smart about them to make sure that, we have a constant discussion. Sometimes there could be, decisions that needs to be made that are of a long-term perspective, and then we have to just adjust the earnout. So you need to be a little bit flexible about them and be, there's always a risk, but we try to handle it, and we have 20 years experience as an organization to handle those type of things.
Right. And here is another one from the same writer. How much is the succession planning you have?
It's a constant ongoing. We do believe trying internal leaders, because we have to appreciate working in a decentralized environment. And if you haven't worked in one of those decentralized environments, could be sometimes hard to understand, because we give the, the authority to our leaders to drive the businesses, but we also expect them to drive the businesses. So that means that they are expected to do probably a lot more than you're doing on other businesses, and you need to embrace that. So that's very much part of it. And how do we do that? It's a normal thing, make sure that they are able to take on new responsibility, there are some internal training, cross-training, be part of, boards within internal. So it's a constant thing, but it's definitely something that we address.
All right, thank you. And, one more question, from the same, writer. How do you make sure that you make good acquisitions from return on invested capital perspective instead of chasing deals?
We are quite prudent on what we are expected to pay for our acquisitions. That means that if you go back, like, two-three years ago, when interest rates were low, and it was possible to borrow a lot of money and pay a lot of money for your acquisitions, we were losing out on a lot of these because we were not with those high multiples. So we are, historically, we have paid around 6x-7x operating profit, and these type of companies don't have any assets, so there are no amortization, no depreciation, so it's operating profit. Sometimes we have—I think with the maximum, sort of multiple we have paid is up to 10x, that have been high-growing, high-margin software businesses.
I think we're quite prudent on how much we pay, because you can never change how much you pay, but you can always change operations.
Right. And then I got the last question from the audience, and this is: How do you manage key person risk in the companies?
The first thing is that you've got to make sure that they find it fun, and then be part of Addnode Group and work with it, and it's rewarding to create new opportunities, and also make sure that you embrace being part of a growing company. Because, going back historically, over the last 20 years, you will find that Addnode Group, on average, has roughly 15% growth. And you need to make sure that you have the people who like that, and you also need to provide opportunities for that. And I think that's sort of the major part of it. We need to continue to grow so they can grow.
Right. That was all the questions that I had to the call.
Thank you, and thank you all for listening in to this, and, yeah, thank you.
Yeah. Thank you!