Welcome to the Green Landscaping Group Q4 Presentation for 2023. During the questions and answer 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 Nordström, and CFO, Carl-Fredrik Meijer. Please begin your meeting.
Okay. So welcome everyone to this conference call of Green Landscaping, where we are presenting our Fourth Quarter 2023 Financial Report. As mentioned, I'm presenting as usual, that's myself, Johan Nordström, the CEO, and Carl-Fredrik Meijer, our CFO. So without further ado, let's dive into the presentation. Slide two, please. This is just a very, very brief introduction to Green Landscaping, for those of you who are not that familiar with us. But we have grown into becoming a leading company in the ground maintenance and landscaping industry, taking care of outdoor environments. We have also grown into becoming the leading industrial consolidator in Europe. We are operating under a very well proven and successful decentralized business model that serves us very well, and we clearly have above industry margins, given the strategy we have chosen.
So we are on the path of becoming a European champion. We have operations in five countries at this point of time, as we have not concluded the investment in Switzerland. We also have about 50 subsidiaries that is operating all over those five countries in Europe. So that's a very short introduction on of Green Landscaping. So next slide, please. And to sum up the full year of 2023, I would actually start by going back to the end of 2022, where we were quite active on the acquisition side, as we had made, I believe, 12 investments during the course of that year. At the same time as we had interest rates going up, we had inflation going up, and it was a bit of an uncertainty what would happen with the market.
So as we had been very active on the investment side, we actually said that for the first half year of 2023, we took a step back on the acquisition side to see what will happen with the market, what's going to happen with the cash flow and the profit margins and such. And then we used that time, the first half year of 2023, to actually invest heavily in the platform, to build up the German market for us. And that meant that we made sure that we had the right advisors, we translated everything into Germany.
We actually studied German as well, so we do speak a little German, and we opened up our office in Munich, and then we made our first recruitment in Germany with the country manager of Stephan Stieglauer in Germany as well. And then towards the summer, when we had seen what's going on in the market and our performance and so forth, then we felt confident in starting to acquire companies again. So we made the first introduction in Frankfurt with Schmitt & Scalzo, and that's Francesco. That was the first acquisition we made. And then for the second half of the year, we followed through with a further two companies in Germany and one in Switzerland.
I'm quite pleased with the way we conduct ourselves, given the market situations we had towards the end of 2022, and the plan that we laid out for the full year of 2023. In terms of the financial performance, sales increased by 21%, so we came up to SEK 5.8 billion in revenue. In terms of profitability, we saw a nice development, where that one actually increased more than the revenue, so that's a 26% increase that amounted to SEK 512 million in EBITA. And that gave us a profit margin of 8.8%, and that's a slight increase compared to the year before. All in all, I think we executed according to the plan, and financial-wise, we also went according to plan.
So yeah, that's to sum up the year. I'm kind of happy with the performance. So next slide, please. Moving into the fourth quarter financial performance. So again, it's a very strong quarter. Net sales increased by 2%. However, organically, in the quarter, we have a -6%. And we have to keep in mind here that the fourth quarter of 2022 was a very strong quarter. So even though we can see a slight decrease in the fourth quarter of 2023, it doesn't mean it was a strong quarter. It really was. So in terms of EBITA, we landed at SEK 159 million, and that equates to a profit margin or EBITA margin of 9.6%. So all in all, a strong quarter.
Looking upon the financial discipline, the gearing here, we are at 2.5, and as we have stated that since a couple of years back, we have a positive cash flow, then we are acquiring companies, so we are in control of the debt level. It's only a matter of how we allocate the funds or where we choose to invest the money. So being at a 2.5 level, we are quite confident, and we are managing that one carefully. And then as we see the market going on, as we did in the last year. So all in all, that's 2.5, that's good.
And as I did mention, in terms of the expansions in Germany or Switzerland, we did two acquisitions by Rainer and the Hartmann company in Germany, and then Viva Gartenbau in Switzerland to finish off the fourth quarter of 2023. Next slide, please. This is just to give you a historical perspective over the company, going back to the fourth quarter of 2020. So that's a three-year perspective. If you look upon the revenue side, you can actually see that we have grown almost 3x . So the rolling 12 months of Q4 2020, that's above about SEK 2 billion. Now, three years later on, we are close to SEK 6 billion. So that's a 3x in three years time.
Profit-wise, we were at about SEK 100 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, and, for the fourth quarter of 2024, 2023, we're actually about SEK 500 million. So that's a 5x development in profitability. So 3x in revenue and 5x in profitability for the last two years. So it's a pretty good track record. Next slide, please. Order backlog, given the type of customer we have, it's a fairly stable business, I would say, with public customers. We have long contracts, and we have a fairly stable order book. So that one grew by 6% in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. And of course, that's a mix of organic growth as a new company was coming in.
There is a difference between the landscaping companies, because they have they typically renew their contracts. So they have a coverage of about six months, while the maintenance, they have very long contracts and constitutes the majority of the order book, so to say. So we are pleased to have that stability, and I think the number tells us that we are quite a stable company, given the order book we have. Next slide, please. Looking upon Sweden and development there, we can see that for the full year of 2023, we reached a sales of SEK 2.8 billion, and that's a 4% increase for the full year. Organically, we grew by 1%, and we had a 3% contribution from acquisitions. In the fourth quarter alone, we came in at SEK 800 million.
Again, we are going up against good numbers from the last year, but that's a -2% for the fourth quarter. And there's a difference between the ground service and the landscaping, but nothing really revolutionary. It's going according to plan. Profit-wise, we came in at SEK 174 million, and that's kind of below the performance of 2022 by -9%, and that's a -25% in the quarter. And that is mainly due to the one company that we have been referring to, which have accrued losses for the full year.
And then we have made additional reservations in the fourth quarter for the full year of 2024 for that particular contract, because it's actually one contract we are referring to in one company. And that means we have, or is it, made accruals for expected losses in 2024 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Sorry, I hope I got, I got that one right. Anyway, that's the development in Sweden. Otherwise, the majority of the companies in Sweden are performing to plan, or actually, it's slightly above plan. So all in all, it's a good performance for the companies in Sweden, except the one company that we have had issues with and now have made final accruals for. Next slide, please.
Norway, there we grew into SEK 2.3 billion or SEK 2.4 billion, quite an impressive growth there of 29% for the full year. Organically, it was somewhat high, it's 6%, still good. And then acquisitions contributed by 28%, so we are still seeing a high growth rate in the Norwegian market. We can also note that we have, I would say—fairly and not a substantial, but it's, we are impacted by the exchange rate given the difference between the SEK and the Norwegian krone. In the quarter, -4%, SEK 679 million, that's pretty much according to plan. And then again, EBITA, SEK 242 million.
It's a decent profit margin we have there at 10.1%, down from 13.4% from the previous year. That was in particular the last quarter of this year, where they came in slightly weaker than expected. But nonetheless, it's a good performance in Norway, where we have a 10% margin for the full year. Next slide, please. Then again, when we look upon Finland and Western Europe, where that's the region where we are most actively, I would say, in terms of acquisitions, and we are starting from kind of low numbers, so that means that the percentage we can see we have very high fluctuations on the percentage when you're at a very low level, of course.
But nonetheless, we reached SEK 610 million in revenue for the full year of 2023, and that's on the plus side of 168%. Organically, we grew by 5%, and of course, that means that it's mostly acquisitions and to some extent we have a high impact on the currency as well, impacting that segment as that's predominantly euro-based currency countries. In terms of profitability, we reached SEK 141 million, and that's 530%. So again, we are coming from very low numbers. But coming in at a profit margin of 23% in the quarter, that's a very, very strong margin.
But we also have timing effects, depending on when the company are being consolidated into our numbers, as there might be variations or seasonal variations of their earnings reporting. So it depends when they're coming in. But now we are, I won't say we have the critical mass, but we are getting to a critical mass, and that's when we're going to see that you're going to have stability in terms of growth and the profitability coming out of this segment. But nonetheless, those companies we have there have done a very good job, in particular, the companies we have in Germany, as well as Stebulė . They are really performing. The Finnish market, to some extent, is, I would say, negatively affected by the macro environment. So there's a difference inside this segment. But nonetheless, that's where we are.
And of course, looking into the future, as mentioned previously, we are focusing on Germany, Switzerland, and Austria at this point in time, where we are looking for companies to invest in. Next slide, please. As I did mention, we entered into the German market with our first acquisitions in June, I believe it was, with Schmitt & Scalzo, and that's Francesco, in Frankfurt, and we also opened up our office, and we hired our first country manager, Stephan Stieglauer. And then, as we saw that the market, where the market going to lead us, then we decided, okay, let's open up on the acquisition side again. So we followed up in October with the investment in Matthias Rainer and his company, Rainer Gartengestaltung & Landschaftsbau.
That's a company founded back in 2005. It operates around Ulm, to some extent, they struck out, but it's the vast majority is around Ulm, and that's southwest of Germany. It's a typical company. It's ground maintenance and landscaping services. Revenue-wise, they are about EUR 3 million with 24 employees, and we do welcome them into the Green Group of companies. Next slide, please. Then right before Christmas, we finalized the investment in Christoph Hartmann and his company, and that's Hartmann Ingenieure GmbH , founded back in 1985, and it operates in Berlin, in central Berlin, to be more specific. And this is a pure landscaping company. And as mentioned, it's in central Berlin. They do, I would say, high-profile projects, so we're talking about the government or the Bundestag.
You have the Brandenburger Tor in that area, so it's a fairly condensed area in the absolute heart of Berlin, where this company are doing high-profile work. So they have annual sales of EUR 4.5 million, and they do that with 55 employees. So we do welcome Hartmann, or actually, Christoph Hartmann and his colleagues into the group as well. Next slide, please. Then, towards the end of the year, between Christmas and the New Year, we made our fourth investment, and this is an announced, it's still to be closed. We haven't closed that one, given certain specific permits we need to do in order to finalize this deal in Switzerland.
We have two gentlemen by the name of Severin Brenneisen and Heinz Gutjahr , who are the founders of the company, and the company was founded back in 1992. It operates in Basel, in Switzerland, and again, that's, if you know where Basel is, that's towards the, the, the, what do you say? It's a cross between Germany, Switzerland, and France. That's where they are located. So that means we are going from Frankfurt down to Ulm, and then further down into the southwest region of Germany. So it connects with other companies we have in that area.
They offer services in ground maintenance and landscaping, an annual sales of CHF 3.2 million, and they do that with 20 employees. And again, they are in Basel, and that's where they do their business. So I think that concludes my part of the presentation, and by that, I do hand over to our CFO, Carl-Fredrik.
Thank you, Johan. Strong finish to the year. So, net sales, as mentioned, SEK 1.7 billion, and we reached an almost SEK 6 billion for the full year. So we still have a strong growth. We have the highest EBITA margin ever of 8.8%. The cash flow, I will talk more about that going on the coming slides. The order backlog was solid, and the financial leverage is in target. I would also like to mention that we did share buybacks. We announced the program back in Q4, and we bought back shares worth SEK 17 million during the fourth quarter. So cash flow from operating activities was SEK 379 million versus SEK 431 million in 2022. And in the, sort of it was less than the year before, and the main reason was that the cash flow was a bit weak in Q4.
If you look at the chart, you can see that it varies quite a lot between different quarters due to which type of projects we are running, sometimes weather conditions, and other type of stuff makes it variable. We had a cash position of SEK 459 million at the end of the year. So let's look at the cash flow bridge. We have an EBITA of SEK 159 million. The big part here is the change in net working capital, which was -SEK 82 million, versus +SEK 14 million last year. So this is the biggest gap. And why is that? Like I said, it's project specific, in some cases.
There was also a higher demand for snow and ice removal services at the end of the quarter, and that is billed, then sort of in late December or actually accrued for when ending December. That, and this is why the accounts receivable is up quite a lot, but also accrued income. Then in January, looking at what has happened, we have seen that the, receivables have been paid, and the accrued income has been invoiced, and in some cases, also already paid. So yes, it was a build-up, and of course, I don't like that, but have to accept that it varies sometimes between the corporates. And I'm, I'm happy to see that, it has been—the cash flow has been very strong in January, reversing that trend. Then we made acquisitions of SEK 46 million.
We have, we have sold actually some assets, machinery and that type of stuff, meaning +SEK 25 million from CapEx and other investing activities, new loans of SEK 2 million, and then we repaid debt of SEK 129 million, making the cash flow in total for the period -SEK 68 million in Q4. We talked about financial leverage, it's 2.5. We've been, we've been sort of dancing up and up and down a little bit between this 2.5 financial target, but I'm quite satisfied. Like Johan said, we are deleveraging naturally with the cash flow from that operations over time, but then we do acquisitions, which makes the leverage go up somewhat. And now we've also made some share buybacks, which has the same impact.
So we're quite happy being at this level. The loan maturity has been extended during the quarter from late 2025 to late 2026. We have total maturities amounting to roughly SEK 2 billion, and we have one covenant being net debt to EBITA pro forma, which leaves us plenty of headroom to where we are at the moment. And last page for me is the financial targets. We have a target of growing by 10% per year, including organically and, and acquired growth, and we have ended the year growing 21%. The EBITA margin is the target is 8%. It's been a goal that's been with us for very long, as well as the growth target, and we're now at strong 8.8% compared to the, to the target.
Second year, we're ahead of the target. Leverage should be not above 2.5x, and we're actually at 2.5x. We have a goal of making a dividend, but we are still and probably will be investing all the profits into growth. That concludes my part. Back to you, Johan.
Okay, thank you very much, Carl-Fredrik. And that's pretty much to sum it up before we open up for questions. And I would like to emphasize that we had a plan for the year, as we always do, but we were actually executing the plan in a very good way. So again, given the market conditions with interests going up, high inflation going up, and a great deal of, a great amount of uncertainty into the market, and also given that we were quite hectic or active in the acquisitions field on the end of 2022, that's where we decided that, okay, let's take a step back and see what's going to happen for the first half year or the first six months of 2023. And that's pretty much what we did.
Then we spent that time being quite active in developing the German platform, as I have been talking about. Then as we came towards the summer, and we saw that, okay, we actually are being in a quite good shape, and we see that business is moving along in a good way. So let's open up the office. We are doing the first acquisitions and so forth. Then we ended the year with another three companies, meaning that the platform now consists of four companies. We have two employees; actually, we have one more new employee in Germany. So I'm quite pleased with the performance overall, company-wise.
As we saw the numbers, that we are growing by 21% in terms of revenue to SEK 5.8 billion, and that we increased EBITA with 26%, and that surpassing SEK 500 million, and it has a margin of 8.8% versus the industrial average of about 4.5%-5%. So we're growing at a high pace, and we have basically the double profitability from what the market typically has. For the fourth quarter, we're going up against a very good quarter from 2022, but still, this is probably the second best quarter in the history of the company, where we see that, yeah, SEK 1.6 billion in revenue, an EBITA of SEK 159 million, and a profit margin of 9.6%.
So it's a solid performance, both in the quarter and the full year. So we're quite, kind of, as you can hear, we are quite pleased with the performance in the company, given the market conditions and how we conducted business for the full year of 2023. And by that, I think that concludes the presentation, and then we hand it over to the operators for the Q&A session. Thank you.
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 Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and, good morning. My first one is on, Sweden here. Based on the assessment you have currently, what do you think would be the duration of the headwinds? Either, you know, difficult to predict the market, of course, but the maybe more about the company-specific ones. You said the provision taken this quarter was for, well, essentially one year from now, and then you've taken a provision, two quarters back for, for a bit earlier in the year. But do you think that this is kind of when you expect the contract to be fully worked through, and then, that if things can progress? And, also my follow-up is just financially, whether or not based on the provisions you have now taken, if the headwind on margins is now fully visible in numbers, so to say.
Yeah, thank you. We have the contract and the agreement we have made with the customer, that is, by the end of the third quarter of 2024, that i.e., this year, so that means we have three more quarters to serve the customer with that contract. That's the agreement we have. And then that means that this is a loss-making contract, and we have been quite actively trying to prevent the negative numbers in the contract during the full year, or actually, since we started with this particular contract. And then we made additional provisions in the fourth quarter for expected losses, and that means that for 2024, this year, for the coming nine months, that should end up at, let's say, a 0% profit margin.
That's the expectations, and that's the, the budget we have laid out for it. So yes, we have taken the cost over the P&L for the full year of 2023, the running cost, I mean, and also the provision for it. So there should be a slight upside in, in, the segment reporting for Sweden, based on the, the development of that contract. So that's how it's planned.
Understood. Then a question to you, Carl-Fredrik. The receivables and the effects of the payments related to snow and ice removal, would it be possible to give some indication of the magnitude, just to understand a bit how cash flow would have looked if it were received in December?
Yes. So, I mean, again, we had a 31st of December during the weekend, as we did last year, and it's evident that some customer pushed the payments towards first or second of January 2024. And I mean, looking at it, if we look at the sort of the bridge, we see that we had roughly SEK 80 million in receivables more than last year, outstanding. That was pretty much in three companies. And yeah, that's why it's so quite simple to follow up and look at what happened with the cash flow and then the cash in those companies. And we saw that that was paid in in January.
Then we had roughly the same amount in accrued amount, and then we have followed up with those companies. That was actually split between more companies than just three, but we've seen that that actually has been the majority of that, all of it has been invoiced since then. So that is—that's the magnitude.
Understood. I'll ask another one before getting back in the queue. But now, Finland, rest of Europe, three quarters now with really impressive profitability. And just to kind of think about what you see now in Norway, should we be prepared for some sort of normalization in profitability of these companies?
I think that's a trend that has been going on, and we landed the full year in Norway in terms of profit margins at a 10.1%. So in terms of normalization, I think that's, I was speculating the margin here. But let's say we had the companies that we acquired, as you are growing fast and you make a plan for the companies that is coming in, we ended up in a situation in Norway where several of the companies actually performed significantly better than we expected. The downside of that one is that the year, year afterwards, then of course, they are coming back to more normal profit margins that's been expected. Ending the year at a 10.1%, my opinion is that that is slightly below the expectations, really.
There is a currency effect going on at the same time as. Yeah, it's a somewhat weak margin in Norway, so that's my take on it. So in terms of normalization, I do not really believe that Norway come down. I think there is more on the upside than on the downside in Norway at this point of time, but I'm very careful about giving any type of forecast, any type of what to say, guidance, what's gonna happen in the year. But a 10.1% margin in Norway, given the industrial average, it's a good margin. Given our expectations, it's slightly below what I would have expected for the full year of 2023 in Norway.
Yeah, thanks. That answered my another question, but I know I apologize for being unclear here, but just in Finland, rest of EU, where you had this really, really strong 25% profitability, I mean, should, f or that division or group of companies, should we be prepared for, you know, in 2024, that we might see some kind of normalization effect similar to what we've seen in your Norwegian business?
I probably need another six months before I'm prepared to answer that question, because we are growing quite quickly, and the companies are coming in. So we need more experience and more time with those companies to really understand Stebulė and Francesco in Schmitt & Scalzo in Germany. They're clearly performing over our expectations. There's no question about it. We did not see those profit margins as we did the investment in those companies. So that's a positive surprise that is coming in. And then, of course, we have the Finnish companies that have been struggling with lower margins. Some of them are actually improving the margins, and then we are adding more companies into the group. So it's a bit difficult to make projections on what's going on here.
But again, some companies are overperforming and some companies are underperforming, while others are on a positive trend. So it's a bit too early. So we need probably, another two quarters before we really see, where we have those companies.
Understood. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Henrik Jernbeck from SEB. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have a question regarding the German market, and perhaps also Switzerland and Austria that you mentioned, and the payment dynamics and the exposure here, because, you know, you have quite a large public exposure. Is it the same exposure when it comes to Finland and rest of Europe segment, as we have seen in the past, of about 2/3? Or could you say anything around that?
Good morning, Henrik. If I understand the question correctly, that's about the exposure to the public sector.
Yeah.
And the answer is in Germany, yes, Finland has a more blended picture, I would say. There's a private side that is slightly bigger in Finland than the company as a whole. So I think the outlier here is probably Finland. Now, I'm guessing a bit here, but that's, Fredrik is nodding positively, so yeah. So the exposure to the private sector is somewhat higher in Finland compared to what we have in, like Stebulė . In Lithuania, that's 100% public. In the companies we have in Germany, it's a very high percentage public, if you look upon what they are doing, and the same is in Sweden and Norway. So I would say that Finland is the outlier.
Otherwise, it's the vast majority of the revenue that is like 75%+ that goes into the public sector in. And that's our strategy, really, that that's where we want to be. We are not dealing with construction companies or the private sector to any large extent. So the majority of our company have something like 75% or the majority on the public side, and then they typically have the odd contract, or if it's maintenance, then you have industrial properties, where you have the public customers, and then they are included into the contracts.
Also on those contracts, the public contracts in Germany, do you see how long are the contracts often? I mean, is it four or five years, as you talked about in Sweden?
No, it's not. The majority of the companies we have are landscaping companies in Germany. So it's not flag or maintenance side of business. So it means it's a government contract. You have, like, a framework agreement, and the customers have a budget, and then they are awarding you new projects as you walk along for the course of the year. Typically, they have order books six to nine months, I would say, on the average, but the customers have the budget, but they don't spend the budget at the beginning of the year. They do it in a sequence. So typically, they have a visibility of, I would say, six months, and they have a good knowledge on the amount or the size of the budget the customer actually has.
So that's the situation we have in Germany. They are not, they have some minor maintenance, but the majority of the companies are landscaping companies in Germany and Switzerland, not stable in Lithuania. That's a different story. That's a maintenance company.
Okay, so, yeah. So there's quite a little bit of a different mix then on the divisional breakdown in Germany and Switzerland. Thank you.
At this point of time, these are more project-based or landscaping companies that we have in Germany. Yes.
Okay, and also, do you see, in the future here, that you want to maintain this landscaping and the balance between landscaping and maintenance? Or will we see this on a group level, changing into more of a landscaping-oriented company overall? I mean, looking at the acquisition targets in Germany, for example.
A good question. I don't see any major trend on a corporate level because we are adding. So we are actually trying to keep the mix we have, and the mix, as we're talking about, that we have three segments. So we have the maintenance segments, where we originally came from, and that is about 50% of the total revenue that comes from the maintenance side. And then we have another, like 30%-35% coming in from the landscaping business, and the remainder is road and winter services, and that's predominantly in Oslo, Norway. We are trying to keep roughly that mix, and as we have a critical mass, we are now at the SEK 6 billion revenue, then that doesn't easily change. The crucial for us is the public sector.
That's what we are focusing on, that the customer are well-reputed, they're making good money, they are quality players, and the majority of their revenue goes into the public sector. Then there are other criteria in terms of sustainability, the company culture, the trustworthiness of the founders and stuff that goes into the equation when we make an investment in a company. But it must be a public sector, it's not construction or anything else.
Then if it's landscaping or tree pruning, that's not that critical to us. But of course, we will end up with maintenance companies in Germany as well as we move along, and we will pair that with landscaping companies. The companies we have at this point of time in Germany, that's basically three companies. That's the majority of landscaping at this point of time.
I mean, the key to us is the long customer relationships.
Yeah.
Low customer retention, high retention, low churn.
It's still-
Uh, budgets.
It's still long-term contracts. You still have framework agreements, so its the same type of business, that you have on the landscaping as on the maintenance.
Okay, and well, then the margins are very good in the region. Is it due to it being quite high entry barriers to getting these framework agreements? Or what are the like, barriers of entry? And let's say that you have competition on the local market here, that you have this agreement and for the next procurement process, I mean, is it very tough to be in a procurement process, and that's why we're seeing this quite high margins?
And not on the margins. I would say that the margins are not sustainable in the companies we have, but at this point of time, of course, those margins will be normalized exactly as we have seen in Norway. You're gonna see that happening as we are adding more companies into the group. Operating on a +20% or even +50%, that's tough if you want to grow. So they will be, they will come down to more, let's say, normal levels in the long run, as you are adding more companies into the group.
In terms of barriers of entry, the barriers of entry, in my opinion, in the German market, for instance, compared to Sweden and compared to Finland, I would say that the barriers of entry into the market is actually higher in Germany than they are in Sweden. There are pre-qualification criteria where you have to be a member of certain associations or branch associations. You need to have the right skill set, you need to have the right education of the employees and such. And those requirements, in order to participate in a public tender, is, to our experience, higher in Germany. Now, it's not like you have one rule for Germany. Germany have the different regions, and you have local legislations in the regions.
But if you want to enter into Berlin, for instance, with like, where Hartmann is, then you have to have the right skill sets, you have to have the right education, and you have to have the experience and previous work that you can prove that you have been doing that in a good way. And it seems to us like the government is following up that you actually have done what you're saying you have done and so forth. And that is not necessarily the case in Sweden.
That is more open from that perspective, and we also have a much higher impact of low-cost labor in Sweden that is not that common in Germany, and that is actually unheard of in Switzerland, for instance. So I would say the highest competition and the lowest barrier, that's the Swedish market. Next to that one, it's Finland, and then it actually goes up in Norway and in Germany.
Okay. Thank you for taking my questions. That was all.
Thank you, Henrik.
The next question comes from Alexander Siljeström from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello, Alex. Are you there?
Alexander Siljeström , Pareto Securities, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Hello, Alex.
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi, just some follow-ups. First, you partly addressed this, but the M&A pipeline, the way you look at things today, number one, of course, just what you think about the activity and the acquisition pace in 2024. And number two, if there are any particular regions that you want to focus on?
Sure. Thank you for the questions. As I said, we took a step back in the first half year of 2023, and then as you're reopening the pipeline, then we followed through with an additional three companies and still to close the fourth one. Our expectation is to gradually move up to a pace that we have had historically, and we're, that's about 8-12 companies per year. That's what we would like to see happening in the year of 2024. It's a matter of how developed is the pipeline at this point of time, in order to reach that goal. It's a ramp-up period, that's what I'm saying, before you're going to go back to the pace you had.
Our expectation is to come back to normal, and that's something between 8-12 acquisitions or investments, as we like to refer to it, during this year.
The regions.
Regions! Thank you, Carl-Fredrik. As we are building up the market in Germany, and also going back to the introduction slide there, where I talked about becoming a European champion, right now, we are the second biggest company in Europe. We are clearly the one with the highest profit margin, and we are also the fastest-growing company in Europe. So we are aiming to become number one in Europe. The biggest unconsolidated market in Europe at this point of time is Germany. And, of course, that means that if you want to be number one in Europe, then it's a matter of being number one in Germany at this point in time. So yeah, the main focus is on the German-speaking part, in particular Germany, but also Switzerland and Austria.
That's one of the reasons why we opened up an office in Munich, and that we have recruited local personnel in Germany in order to emphasize that that's our future home market. That's Germany. But that doesn't mean we won't make any acquisitions in the country where we are in. We will most likely do a couple of acquisitions in each of the countries or regions that we are operating in. But we also have to make sure that we have enough gunpowder in order to execute the plan. So yeah, the plan is basically one or two acquisitions in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Baltics each, and then the rest of it, that's Germany and Switzerland and Austria. So the main focus is basically Germany.
Understood. My final is just on corporate cost. It was a bit higher M&A transaction cost this quarter, and then I understand you end of the year you usually have some payments related to incentives and bonuses and similar. But just going in future quarters, is there any indication you can give us on kind of what's corporate costs would be at what kind of level?
You, you're right, Karl, about the Q4 cost. It follows a pattern if you look at the year. I think that the same pattern is probably what we're gonna see in the future. We did also invest in the office in Germany in Q4. But, you know, we don't have any, I mean, important to us is to grow the overhead costs at a lower rate than what our revenue is.
Overhead cost is per definition too high.
Exactly. It's always too high. However, we are making some investments in the M&A capacity and, and that type of stuff. And the office, of course. But, it should be, so what I'm saying is that the levels should not be that different, basically.
Understood. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
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.
Okay. So, thank you very much for calling in, and thank you very much, Alex, Karl, and Henrik, for their questions. So that concludes this presentation. So thank you very much.