Welcome to the C-RAD Q4 2024 report presentation. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing Hash five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Cecilia de Leeuw and CFO Linda Frölén. Please go ahead.
Welcome to our Q4 presentation. We close the year with growing order intake and solid profitability. Let me first zoom out briefly and take you through C-RAD's long-term strategy and our progress for Q4 and 2024. As most of you already know, C-RAD is active within radiation therapy, and more than half of all cancer patients undergo radiation therapy at some point of their treatment. Let me take you through this slide from left to right. First, we have a market-leading, patient-centric portfolio integrated with all leading LINAC, Proton, and CT suppliers. I'm proud that we have over 1,900 systems supplied globally. Secondly, we have a global reach and are expanding step by step. In the fourth quarter, we have successfully broadened our base of installations in APAC, and that is visible in the 112% revenue growth in Q4.
Thirdly, C-RAD sees an untapped potential in both advanced and developing markets, which we want to capture. Also, for this quarter, we had U.S. retrofit wins on Varian LINACs. In fact, more than half of the orders are intended for Varian LINACs, and this is a good step in the right direction to strengthen our position in the U.S. market, and that is a priority for us. Finally, C-RAD has good financial stability, and we continue to display a solid profitability also in Q4. Let's go into a few takeaways for Q4 and the full year. The year ended with a recovered order intake of SEK 168 million, a 13% growth compared to Q4 last year. The main contribution came from EMEA, but also from Americas. Our focus on services paid off in the quarter.
The full- year was impacted by macroeconomic challenges, and the order intake was down by 7% to SEK 486 million. This was softened, however, by an improved fourth quarter. The order backlog increased from last quarter to SEK 759 million. Revenue declined with 12% to SEK 121 million in Q4. While APAC showed strong revenue growth, it could not compensate for the decline in EMEA and Americas. However, this is our sixth consecutive quarter with over SEK 100 million. Revenue for the full- year increased with 10% to SEK 469 million, and this is mainly driven by strong deliveries in APAC. The operating profit was SEK 20 million in Q4, and that corresponds to an EBIT margin of 17%. For the full- year, EBIT margin was a solid 15%, mainly due to sales growth coupled with a stronger gross margin. Let's look further into the regional performance.
Starting with EMEA, where the market has been challenging throughout the year, including Q3, the important German market continues to be slow. We have really worked hard, and our focus on sales and marketing campaigns and actively supporting our customers in their clinical use started to pay off in Q4. Order intake increased 33% to SEK 84 million, and this is a recovery from a sluggish market in 2024. In the quarter, we secured multiple long-term service contracts in the important advanced markets of Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Italy. The service contracts in Spain and Italy are connected with the large product orders from 2022 and 2023, and this highlights the quite common time lag between product order and service contract. Revenue in EMEA was down 39% to SEK 48 million, and this is mainly impacted by the lower order intake earlier this year.
Moving over to the Americas, and addressing Varian's install base of LINACs is part of our long-term focus to strengthen our position in the U.S. market. This quarter, more than half of the systems were for Varian, but we also received a Proton order from Florida, as well as the SEK 10 million Mexico order. The order intake for Americas increased by 14% to SEK 26 million in Q4. Revenue in Q4 for Americas is clearly below my expectation and was negatively impacted by a slower backlog conversion due to installation delays. The quarter was also negatively impacted by an adjustment in service revenue prioritization of SEK 7 million, which will be reported as revenue during 2025. Our operations in APAC had a successful year, and SGRT adoption is growing across the region.
Our market-leading position in China and Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and India were the main contributors to an order intake of SEK 58 million in the quarter. A large number of installations took place in the quarter, and revenue in APAC more than doubled to SEK 63 million in Q4. With that, over to you, Linda, for a closer look at the financials.
Thank you, Cecilia. Regarding the Q4 financials, I want to take you through some of the main events that have shaped our fourth quarter. As Cecilia has already explained order intake and revenue, I will not go into that again, but rather focus on gross margin, OpEx levels, EBIT margin, and cash flow. Gross profit for the quarter was SEK 79.9 million compared to SEK 90.4 million a year ago. The decrease in gross profit is following the decline in revenue year- on- year. Gross margin for the quarter, though, was 66% versus 65% last year. Current levels are in line with what we have had historically and within the range of what we would have expected. As you all know, we had a boost in the gross margin during Q2 and Q3 due to deliveries of Proton orders. We had no deliveries of Proton orders during Q4.
Looking at our main operating expenses, you see at the left-hand side of this chart that they decreased year- on- year from SEK 73.4 million last year to SEK 57.1 million in this quarter. Q4 of 2023 was impacted by expenses of SEK 13 million related to the settled dispute with a former employee. Adjusted for this, OpEx year- on- year was down SEK 3 million, and the decrease is mainly due to lower provisions for annual bonuses following the lower order intake for the full- year. At the right-hand side of the chart, you see that quarter-on-quarter OpEx is up from SEK 54 million in Q3 to SEK 57 million this quarter, and the increase is related to lower personnel expenses in Q3 due to summer holidays, but also to higher sales commission in Q4 due to higher order intake in the quarter.
EBIT for the fourth quarter was SEK 20.4 million compared to SEK 11.5 million a year ago. As I mentioned, Q4 last year had one-off expenses of SEK 13 million. Looking back a few quarters, C-RAD shows continuous improved earnings and an increased profitability over time. This paves the way for continued investments for growth as we believe we can increase the EBIT margin even more over time. Our cash balances increased with SEK 32 million during the quarter and stood at SEK 151 million at quarter end compared to SEK 129 million at the beginning of the quarter. Main driver behind the increase is the improved EBITDA together with a modest cash flow from working capital of SEK 3 million.
Working capital for the quarter was positively affected by payments from customers, but offset by new customer invoices and orders on the balance sheet still awaiting completed final acceptance tests. Managing the balance sheet is a priority, and we are working on this throughout the organization, and it will be a focus area going forward. Last but not least, I would like to remind you that C-RAD is a company with a strong balance sheet with no long-term debt. With that, I will hand over back to Cecilia for some closing comments.
Thank you, Linda. Before moving into Q&A, let me summarize. We closed the year with an order intake recovery, solid profitability, and a strong financial position. Looking ahead, I'm excited to take on the opportunities to capture the demand for SGRT. Our key priorities are growing U.S., which is our long-term ambition, ensure EMEA success, and there are priorities to capture the untapped demand in advanced markets. Key to both U.S. and EMEA is to build long-term customer partnerships. In 2024, it is worth mentioning we increased the number of reference clinics with eight in EMEA and six in the U.S. That is a first good step. Happy customers are our best sales reference. We will continue to capitalize on SGRT demand in selected emerging markets.
Lastly, invest in product innovation and a stronger sales and delivery organization, as it's fundamental to increase sales and drive a sustainable, profitable business. With that, over to you, moderator, for Q&A.
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 Christian Lee from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. You had solid order intake growth for services in the quarter. Was it mainly in EMEA?
Yeah, that's true. The majority, hi Christian, the majority of the service order intake was in EMEA. As I mentioned before, to these advanced markets.
All right. Can you please talk about the outlook for EMEA if you see continued recovery and if there are any significant tenders in 2025?
The situation continues to be pretty much the same with a challenged macroeconomic situation and a slower Germany. We work with everything we can and what we can influence. That is the current status of the situation.
Okay, thank you. Can you please elaborate on how you're investing into growth? I noticed that the capitalized expenses have decreased by half compared to last year.
Yeah, the capitalized expenses was the question.
Yeah. How you're investing in future growth in general?
Yeah. Not everything is visible at this point right now. It depends on what type of projects we are running, but we are continuously investing in future growth.
Is it through employing more FTEs?
Yes, over the year we have added more FTEs into R&D. That's correct.
Okay, thank you. My final question. During the quarter, you had canceled orders of almost SEK 15 million. Do you see any risk of further cancellation?
I can answer that. Yes, we have a larger amount in this quarter, and we believe it's a normal course of business that some deals do not materialize. We have had canceled orders historically too, but they have been smaller amounts when it comes to each individual quarter. I think that this quarter we have done a more thorough review of the older orders in the backlog, and therefore more cancellations have surfaced. It is pretty natural. Given the size of the order backlog as such, we do not think that the amount is significant, but it may be a large amount in the isolated quarter, which is why we wanted to be transparent about it. It is not a large amount over time in that sense.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. I will jump back to the queue.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial Pound key five on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial Pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you all for attending our Q4 presentation, and we are 100% committed in our fight against cancer. Thank you.