Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Coor Service Management Q4 Report 2023 call. For the first part of the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and afterwards, there'll be a question and answer session. Today, I'm pleased to present CEO and President, AnnaCarin Grandin, and CFO and IR Director, Andreas Engdahl. Please go ahead.
Welcome, and thank you for listening in to Coor's Q4 report. Before presenting the report, I will give a short introduction of Coor, for those of you who not yet know Coor. We are the leading facility management provider in the Nordics and offer our customers a broad range of services. We future-proof our company by drive and steer Coor from a triple bottom line perspective, meaning that we are taking a business, a social, and an environmental responsibility. From a business perspective, we have a clear ambition to have a stable and solid financial development with high customer satisfaction. From a social perspective, we have a clear ambition to attract the best talents in the market, as well as support and develop our employees.
I'm very proud of leading a company where diversity and inclusion makes a difference, where we believe diversity create an even more successful company. We have a clear ambition to improve the environment. Our environmental targets are approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, and that means that our environmental targets are in line with the Paris Agreement to limit the global warming increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. With our knowledge and competence, we also support our customers to reach their environmental ambition. Moving over to our Q4 report, I will start by presenting key highlights in the quarter, followed by our triple bottom line results. I will then hand over to Andreas to present some more details around financial performance before we sum up and have a Q&A. Let's start with the highlights in the quarter.
We continue to see high business activity in the last quarter of 2023. In Sweden, a new agreement was signed with OKG at Nuclear Power Plant in Oskarshamn for food and beverage services. New agreements were also signed with Locum for delivery of property service to several hospitals in the southern part of Stockholm and Södertälje. The contracts extends for up to eight years, including extension options. In Denmark, we have prolonged the IFM contract with MAN. The cleaning contract with MACH has also been prolonged, a contract that we have had for 17 years. The IFM contract with Topsøe has been extended with additional services, and a two-year option has also been exercised.
After intense integration work during the fourth quarter, we started the new and large IFM contract with Swedbank in December, and I am proud to see all the commitment from my colleagues to start up that contract. The integration of the acquired Swedish cleaning company, Skaraborgs Städ, is proceeding as planned and is adding value as expected. We expect the integration to be finalized during spring. In the Q3 report, I announced an action program to accelerate the company's progress towards its long-term margin target. The implementation of the program is proceeding according to plan and is expected to generate an anticipated profitability improvement in 2024. Coor is growing and developing with a strong Nordic platform, but to continue the development at a high pace and take advantage of business opportunities, changes are being made to the executive management team.
Stina Solheim will take up the position as the president of the Norwegian operations during the second quarter, and in Sweden, an external interim solutions will be appointed until a permanent new president is in place, as Magnus Wikström will leave his position in mid-February. Finally, a market update. We continue to see a solid pipeline of medium and small-sized contracts in all segments. There are also a few larger contracts in the process, so overall, we continue to see a strong growth opportunities in the Nordic market. So we move over to our results in the business dimension and some of the key financial metrics in Q4. Organic growth is 3% in the quarter. The growth results from new small and mid-sized contracts, as well as high variable volumes.
Acquired growth is 3% in the quarter, fully related to Sweden with the recent acquisition of the Skaraborgs Städ. The EBITDA margin for Q4 is 5.1%. Our full- year margin ended at 4.9%, which is below our margin target of around 5.5%, and our intention is to accelerate towards margin target. Cash conversion is an LTM number and ended at 86%, slightly below our target. Leverage is also an LTM number and 2.5. That is in line with our target to stay below three. Our ambition is to reduce our leverage somewhat during 2024.
For 2023, the board of directors proposes a dividend of 3 SEK per share, of which 2.4 SEK per share as ordinary dividend paid out in May, and 0.6 SEK per share comprises an extraordinary dividend paid out in October. Moving on with our performance in social and environmental responsibility, we continue to see a steady improvement in our injury frequency. TRIF for 2023 reached 5.5, and that is an all-time low for Coor. Still a way towards our target of 3.5, but with safety in focus, we continue to see improvements every quarter. On the environmental KPIs, we see a positive development.
On scope one, CO₂ emissions from our vehicle fleet, we still have an increase compared to baseline from 2018 in absolute numbers, but a decrease compared to previous quarters, as well as a significant decrease compared to the same quarter last year, even if we, in 2023, have added 180 vehicles from the acquisition of Skaraborgs Städ. All countries works actively with increasing their share of electric vehicles, a more effective fleet management, and to use HVO fuel instead of diesel where it's possible. All together to turn the trend and to reduce CO₂ emissions in absolute numbers. For scope three and science-based target aligned suppliers, we continue to make great progress. Previous quarter, we presented 12%, and we are now at 18%.
We continue to push our suppliers to align their targets with Science-Based Targets and also actively steer our spend towards the ones that are SBTi-approved. So with that, I hand over to Andreas to continue with the details on the financials.
Thank you, AnnaCarin. Coor's total turnover of SEK 12.4 billion can be viewed in different dimensions. From a contract type perspective, we see that the split continues to be stable, with IFM contracts just under 60% and single service contracts just over 40%. Slicing the turnover by service line, we see only small variations compared to previous quarters, and cleaning continues to be our largest service line, with 40% of net sales. On our customer segments, the split remains diversified. As you heard from AnnaCarin, we continue to grow. Organic growth for the quarter was 3%, and that is despite the ended contract with Ericsson having full impact in the quarter. Acquired growth adds another 3%.
Net sales is up almost SEK 200 million versus Q4 last year, and that takes us to a quarterly net sales of close to SEK 3.3 billion. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to SEK 166 million, which gives us an EBITDA margin in the quarter of 5.1%. IACs in the quarter amounted to SEK 57 million. The quarter includes cost of around SEK 40 million related to the action program announced in the Q3 report. There has also been high activity for integration of acquisitions and startup of new organic contracts, primarily the large IFM contract with Swedbank. Financial net increased in the quarter, and that is driven by higher liabilities to credit institutions and a higher interest rate compared to last year.
Net income is 30 million SEK, and adjusted net income when adding back amortization amounts to 53 million SEK. On the full- year numbers, we see that net sales is slightly above 12.4 billion SEK. Full- year organic growth is 2%, acquired 2%, and FX 1%. The full year EBITDA level is 606 million SEK, which gives us an EBITDA margin of 4.9%. Adjusted net income for the full- year is 285 million SEK. Looking at Q4 country by country, starting with Sweden, organic growth flat in the quarter, where new contracts and high variable volume in property, conference, and food and beverage compensate for the lost contract with Ericsson.
Adjusted EBITDA are more or less in line with last year, but with lower margins, 8.8% versus 9.4% in Q4 last year. EBITDA was positively impacted by newly started contracts and the acquisition of Skaraborgs Städ, and negatively impacted by the ended contract with Ericsson. This latter effect is still somewhat amplified by lost synergies with other contracts, which the Swedish organization is gradually managing. Furthermore, margins in the quarter were negatively impacted by cost for high sick leave. In Denmark, organic growth was 1%. We have high variable volume and indexations, partly offset by a few smaller ended contracts. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased compared to last year, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 5.4% versus 4.1% last year.
The stronger EBITDA margin was driven by positive effects of indexation, with some retroactive effects, as well as the effects from the adaptation of the organization that was implemented during the second quarter last year. In Norway, organic growth in the quarter was 15% from several new mid-size contracts, such as Drammen Municipality, Studentsamskipnaden i Oslo, and IKEA. Adjusted EBITDA was in line with last year, and adjusted EBITDA margin 4% versus 4.5% last year. The decrease in margin was driven by newly started contracts with lower initial margins. Organic growth in Finland was 4% from increased variable volume and a few small and new contracts. They were partly offset by a couple of smaller loss-making contracts in the northern part of Finland that was terminated earlier last year.
Adjusted EBITDA increased in the quarter, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 1.2% versus 0.2% last year. The increase in margin comes from efficiency actions, as well as the terminated loss-making contracts in Northern Finland that had a negative impact on profitability in Q4 last year. Looking at the contract portfolio development, we saw a positive net change in the first half year of 2023, of SEK 165 million, presented in our Q2 report. In the second half, we have 30 new contracts awarded, amounting to SEK 430 million, with Swedbank being the largest one. We have three contracts ended, amounting to SEK 510 million, with Ericsson being the largest one. That takes the full- year net change to a positive SEK 85 million.
If we add the acquired portfolio of Skaraborgs Städ to that, we end up with a total net change for the year of SEK 485 million. Moving over to contract concentration and maturity. On customer concentration, we see 38% of total turnover coming from the 10 largest contracts, somewhat lower than the approximately 45% we had a couple of years back. We will, of course, always strive to win and retain the really large contracts, but we're also happy to, when adding several new mid-size contracts and thereby reducing customer concentration. With the acquisitions we have made the past years, we have also added volume in the small contracts segment. That also reduces customer concentration.
On maturity for large contracts, that is contracts with an annual turnover above SEK 100 million, we see that 9%, of course, total turnover is up for renewal in 2024, and that small and medium-sized contracts represent just below 60%, of course. Moving on to cash flow, we see that our key metric, LTM cash conversion, ended at 86% for the full year, slightly below our target of staying above 90%. With Q4 ending on a Sunday, we had somewhat higher past due receivables compared to normal. They were, however, all paid early January, and we see no general change in payment patterns from our customers. On the LTM cash flow, the M&A item is related to finalizing the acquisition of Skaraborgs Städ in the second quarter last year.
And on the balance sheet, net working capital as percent of net sales is stable compared to historical numbers, and for the full- year at - 8.5%. Leverage at 2.5, a slight increase compared to previous quarter, driven by paying out the extraordinary dividend in October. And with that, I hand it back over to you, AnnaCarin.
Well, thank you, Andreas. So before we go into a Q&A, I would like to summarize our last quarter of 2023. We have high business activity in the quarter, with both new contract wins and several prolongations. There has also been high activity with integration of acquired business, as well as startup of new organic contracts. We see continued growth opportunities in the Nordic market from a solid pipeline of mid-sized and small contracts and a visibility of some large contracts. And we continue to stay committed to deliver on our, for our financial targets. So with full- year profitability below our ambitions, we have initiated an action program to accelerate progress towards our margin target of 5.5%, and we see that program proceeding according to plan in the fourth quarter.
Dividend is our capital allocation priority, and for 2023, the board of directors proposed a total dividend of 3 SEK per share. And finally, I would like to extend my warm thanks to my colleagues. With joint forces, we are building a truly sustainable and successful company. So with that, we open up for questions.
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please dial star one on your telephone keypads now to enter the queue. Once your name's announced, you can ask your question. If you find your question has been answered before it's your turn to speak, you can dial star two to cancel. So once again, that's star one to ask a question or star two if you need to cancel. Our first question comes from the line of Mads Andersen at DNB Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
.eah, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, Mads Andersen from DNB Markets. Just standing in for Karl- Johan this morning. So AnnaCarin, you mentioned the RFPs, I guess, the pipeline looking healthy and strong. I was wondering if you could add some detail maybe on sort of the, maybe not the small and medium ones, but the larger ones that you talked about. I mean, first of all, is it sort of first-time outsourcing contracts, or is it essentially sort of existing contracts coming up for grabs from competitors? But also maybe if we can get an idea of the potential size of these. I mean, is it sort of Ericsson style size, or is it smaller, slightly larger?
Then I guess, maybe on that, if you, I guess, in those RFPs, if you have an idea of the timeline of when these contracts could potentially be awarded or you have a conclusion. That'll be my first question.
Thank you, Mads. I will try to help out. As I mentioned, we do see quite high business activity in the Nordic market. When we look into the pipeline, we can see actually several cases quite large, and there is a mixture about of them. Some of them are first-time outsourcing contracts, and some of them are contracts that some of our colleagues in the industry is delivering today. So it's a mixture of that, I would like to say. When it comes to size, I would like to say that there's no contract in the same size as Ericsson, but quite close, actually.
And the timeline of those kind of contracts, I would like to say, if I take Swedbank as an example, I would like to say that we worked with that case in the process for about a year. So those kind of large contracts, often quite complex contracts, they take some while to materialize as well. So we are, we see quite positive for the future.
Okay, got it. Thank you very much. The reason why I'm asking is just that I guess both you and some of your peers have mentioned that, you know, the pipeline looks healthy, but also that it's taking longer than it maybe has in the past. But I think, yeah, those could work some additional color. Maybe if I could just ask you on variable volumes, they look quite strong in Q4. And I guess maybe just a question is on the cyclicality of these volumes. I guess in the past, they tend to be relatively volatile, and obviously, there was the COVID volumes as well, which, I guess, is if not completely out, then close at least.
If we look at sort of the expectations for variable volumes in 2024, any sort of color that you can add on this, please?
I can try to give you some color of that. I think we have seen quite a high volume of the variable projects for quite a bit in 2023, and we do see that they, w e see that they will continue at least in the beginning of Q1, absolutely. So I think we are also quite positive in that area as well. We see that the variable volume comes from property-related projects, and there is a lot of activities going on towards our customers. I think that is an effect from well, trying to find a good balance after COVID.
I think some of them are well doing changes in their offices, for example, but we also have a lot of customers in the industry, and we know that in, in, from, in, with some of our customers, there is very high activity in their business. So quite a lot of property-related volume. We also can see that after COVID, we can see that the volume in the restaurants is increasing as well. And of course, Q4, and that is also a quarter when we serve a lot of Christmas tables, julbord, as well.
Yeah, sorry, if I may just follow up on that. I mean, if you just look at the Christmas period in itself, I mean, how was that year- on- year, if you, I mean, if you have the numbers, do you have an idea if it was up, like overall in the quarter, year- over- year, or was it more muted? Because I guess the fear was that a lot of the companies or your customers would save on Christmas parties and that sort of thing.
I would like to say it's more or less actually the same. It was high activity in 2022 as well, but slightly higher in 2023.
Got it. Thank you very much. I'm sorry. I'll two questions more, if that's okay. Just maybe on
Sure.
I'll try and be quick on the-- thank you. On the country management changes that you're doing in Sweden, maybe just first of all, why and what are you sort of trying to achieve? Any color on that would be great. I'll just throw in the second question. Forgive me if I've missed this, but can you sort of give us an idea of what the sort of wage increase you're expecting? I think you've said previously around 4% wage increase in 2024. If you could help on that, but also if you could be a bit specific on the pricing impact on the top line in 2024, please. Thank you.
Absolutely. I start with the changes we are doing in executive management teams. Well, Magnus Wikström, I know him very well. We have been working together for more than 20 years, and I am really impressed by his competence in this industry, and he's really been working with Sweden in a good way, taking Sweden through a COVID situation and doing that in a very good way. At the moment, we are continue to grow, we are continue to develop ourselves, and we work quite a lot to harmonize our underlying processes and using other kind of tools.
Then I know it's quite a challenging position in the company, of course, and me and Magnus, we have had a dialogue, and he has always had the best for Coor in his mind, and he has decided to resign and leave the company. And I have decided to switch with an external interim solution quite immediately, and then looking for a permanent solution. So it's no drama in that one. Magnus will also support this process all the way, so this is no drama at all. And then I can just go over to Andreas, and just handle the wage.
Sure. The wage increases in 2024, I mean, we don't have visibility on all of the union agreements yet, but the majority of them we have, and they will be set lower than last year. Last year were 4%-4.5%. So we're looking at lower numbers in 2024. What we also see on the indexations currently, that the labor cost index are sort of reflecting last year's increases and are on that level, as wage increases were last year. Then, of course, gradually in 2024, that they will decrease when 2024 increases sort of affect indexes. But right now, they are around last year's wage increase.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Just as a reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please dial star one on your telephone keypads now. Our next question comes from the line of Oliver Uusitalo of Aktiesp ararna. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi, I'm calling in, and Andreas, congratulations on a good quarter. I have a couple of questions from my end. You reached 4.9% in margin for 2023, and you said that and it's a bit below the target of 5.5%. With the action program in place, do you expect to reach the profitability target already in 2024, or should we rather expect an increase towards the target? And also, how much remains to be done in terms of cost savings, and will the action program burden the P&L in the upcoming quarters?
Good morning. Good morning, Oliver. Let's start with margins. I think you should expect margins to increase throughout the year. So we are aiming at delivering towards the target at, I would say, more the second half of the year than looking at the full year numbers. And the action program is progressing well. We have, on the cost side, taking around SEK 40 million in Q4, and then we don't expect any sort of material more cost to come here the coming quarters.
I see. Loud and clear. Thank you. Also, the net debt came in at 2.5 x EBITDA, that's up from last quarter. You said that dividend is highly prioritized, which I, of course, understand. How do you view your financial position right now, and is reducing debt still a highly prioritized target?
I mean, we would like to balance our debt, of course, but looking at the full year numbers, we are—the board of directors proposes a dividend of 3 SEK per share. That corresponds to our both adjusted net profit and free cash flow. We do have a stable capacity to generate cash flow, so we believe that is a level that we can support. But at the same time, actually, the leverage here in 2024 with the profitability improvements that we are aiming for.
I understand. Thank you so much, and have a great day.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if there are any final questions, please dial star one on your telephone keypads now. Okay, we've had one further question come through. That's from the line of Raymond Ke at Nordea. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Okay, great. Good morning, and I apologize if any of these questions have already been asked, but I was wondering about the lower margins in Norway due to the three initial contracts there. It's been almost a year since you won them. When do you expect them to sort of reach normal levels of profitability?
We believe we will have them up and running here in the first half of 2024.
Great. And regarding the Saab contract, I understand that it is a contract that's being renegotiated this year. Is
Is that going to be sort of a full, full-on renegotiation where they invite all new parties or, any news on that one?
I can comment on that. That is actually an ongoing process, and it's an open RFP process as well. So
Perfect, and
We do not have an exclusive negotiation, but we are doing what we always do, our absolute best to prolong that contract and still in the process.
Got it. Regarding Sweden then, if the sick leave rate was sort of unchanged year-over-year, would that have moved the needle for the margin in Sweden? And if so, how much?
So, sorry, take that question again.
Yeah, so I understand that the sick leave rate was higher in Sweden, which sort of negatively impacted the margin there.
Yeah, yeah.
If it had been unchanged, flat year- over- year, would that have moved the needle for the margin in Sweden? Would the profitability have been at a higher rate or, yeah, if so, how much?
Yeah, slightly. I mean, their full year numbers is 8.9%, that they would have been slightly above 9%, with an enormous sick leave level.
Okay. That's very helpful. Thanks a lot. All from me.
Thank you.
Thank you. There are currently no further questions in the queue at this time, so I'll hand the floor back to our speakers for the closing comments.
Mm. Thank you for listening in, and I wish you all a continued day.