Thank you very much, welcome everyone to this year-end report for 2020. If we start at slide number four, overview of the fourth quarter 2020. As we can see to the right, net sales amounted to EUR 1. 059 billion In 2019, and we grew through M&A 3% this quarter, but we had 5% negative FX headwind in this quarter, and we grew organically by 1%, thus recording a -1% recorded growth of EUR 1 .044 . Within that growth, we saw Geospatial growing by 7% organic growth, and we saw strong development across all business units within Geosystems, fueled by construction and infrastructure demand. Safety and Infrastructure had also a solid development in public safety, and with its new products, the OnCall products, we saw solid demand in the quarter. Industrial Enterprise Solutions recorded -5% organic growth.
We saw sequential improvement in Manufacturing Intelligence. We had a positive book-to-bill in the quarter. PP&M faced a tough comparison quarter and challenges from the oil and gas markets. China recorded 25% organic growth. All in all, this comes down to an EBIT of EUR 287 million, which is EUR 10 million more than the same period of last year or a 4% growth. EBIT margin 28% versus 26% in Q4 of 2019. Now, if we go to slide five, that is just a reminder that the fourth quarter is our strongest quarter in a year, and the pattern repeated itself in 2020 as well. Moving on to slide six, the P&L statement. Operating net sales amount to EUR 1.0 44 billion. The revenue adjustment is the so-called revenue haircut that we have to do for acquired deferred revenue.
Operating earnings, EBIT 1, amounted to EUR 287.2 million. Earnings before taxes, excluding non-recurring items, roughly EUR 280 million. Slide seven is the full year, where we end the year at EUR 3.8 billion with an EBIT of EUR 956 million. Now, cash flow was a bit of a surprise for us as well in the quarter. Super strong cash flow, cash conversion over 149% in the fourth quarter. We had good performance in cash flow from operations before changes in working capital, which increased by EUR 14 million-EUR 334 million. Now look at the change in working capital, where we have EUR 144.5 million in capital release in one quarter, pushing cash flow from operations to EUR 479 million in the quarter. All in all, a very strong cash flow.
This has to do with good management in accounts receivable, where we traditionally have a very accentuated hockey stick in invoicing, where we invoice a lot in the last two weeks of the quarter. This time around, though, we had more even invoicing in the fourth quarter, which enabled us to collect cash. At the same time, we reduced our inventories, and we received large order that we booked in deferred revenues that pushed up liabilities, giving us a positive cash flow. Now, moving on to slide nine, effects of FX movements. We have a very strong negative currency headwind in the quarter, primarily stemming from the devaluation of the U.S. dollar and the Chinese renminbi against the euro. Also we saw negative impacts on the cost side from the Swiss franc.
That means that we have a negative effect of EUR 50 million on sales, but EUR 27 million in earnings. The incremental margin on the FX impact is substantial. If we now neutralize for FX, we would have reached EUR 1,094 million in sales and EUR 314 million in earnings, thus bringing the EBIT margin to 29% or almost 3% better than the corresponding quarter of 2019. Moving on to slide 10, coming back to working capital. This is just a visualization, a graph, working capital to sales, and we see the dramatic decline in working capital to sales in the fourth quarter. It amounted to 5.3%. Can't promise that we can keep it at this level. We're probably going to see a little bounce back in Q1, but the long-term trend is definitely there. Market development, we move to Slide 12.
The geographic sales mix for the Hexagon Group in the fourth quarter, North America, 29% versus 32% in Q4 of 2019. China increased to 15% versus 12%. The rest is the same. Let's move on to Slide 13, an overview per geographic region, where we see strong growth, 25% in China and 18% in South America, organic growth in the quarter. We see good growth in Asia, excluding China, and in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. Western Europe and North America are really the regions that still are in negative territory in the fourth quarter. For your reference on Slide 14, you have the organic growth trend per business segment and geographic region. Let's move on to the various regions, starting by looking at EMEA on Slide 15. Western Europe record, -5% organic growth.
It's driven by two countries, and it's Germany and France, where we saw a decline in automotive and aerospace sales in the quarter. We saw solid growth in surveying and public safety in Western Europe. Russia and Middle East recorded high single-digit organic growth. We move to Slide 16, Americas. North America, minus 6% organic growth. Similar pattern as we saw in Western Europe, weakness in the manufacturing and power and energy segments. Defense, however, and agriculture recorded robust growth in the region. South America, double-digit organic growth, where Brazil was the engine for growth in the region. Strong development also in mining, surveying, and public safety. Finally, Asia on Slide 17. China recorded a record 25% organic growth in the quarter. Broad-based recovery in both manufacturing, infrastructure construction, and even our oil and gas segment grew in China in the quarter.
South Korea and Japan, strong single-digit growth fueled by demand in mapping and autonomous vehicle solutions. Southeast Asia and India had a weak quarter. Reporting segments, if we start with Geospatial Enterprise Solutions on Slide 19. Geospatial Enterprise Solutions report an organic growth of 7%, driven by Geosystems' 8% organic growth, where we saw strong development across all business units. Mining segment continued to record solid growth, and we also saw good contributions from new products in the quarter. SI, 5% organic growth, and it was supported by the solid development we see in public safety and continued traction for our new OnCall software platform. Autonomy & Positioning, 11% organic growth, positively impacted by demand from both defense and agricultural sectors, was slightly adversely impacted by demand in automotive and marine. Sales amounted to EUR 535 million, up from EUR 514.9 million a year ago.
EBIT margin improved by 3% - 29.2% versus 26.1% previous year. Moving to Industrial Enterprise Solutions on Slide 20, -5% organic growth, but within Industrial Enterprise Solutions, we saw MI sequentially improve to -2% organic growth and a positive book-to-bill in the quarter. It was supported by a broad-based recovery in China, which is the single largest market for MI, and software growth. Hampered by the continued weakness we saw in the quarter for aerospace and automotive in Europe and Americas. PP&M, -12% organic growth. Two explanations to that negative growth. We have tough comparisons against Q4 of 2019, that was an all-time high, but also a challenging oil and gas market in the fourth quarter. We saw continued solid growth for our AEC portfolio in the quarter. Bookings were positive, and we expect a continuing improvement for this segment going into the first quarter.
Sales amounted to EUR 509 million versus EUR 544 million a year ago. EBIT margin, in spite of the volume drop, stayed at 27%, posting an EBIT of EUR 138 million. Moving on to slide 21. Our gross margin was 63% for the past 12 months. In the fourth quarter, it was 64%. Slide 22, our rolling 12-month EBIT margin is 25%, same as a year ago. With a dip in the first half and a record EBIT margin in the second half of 2020. M&A orders and product releases. If we move to slide 24, we acquired OxBlue, which is a leader in construction visualization technologies. OxBlue is going to be integrated in our Smart Build product offering. It will strengthen our capabilities to serve the rapidly evolving AEC digital ecosystem. I think it's going to be a great acquisition. Slide 25.
We also acquired PAS Global LLC in the fourth quarter. This is a new cybersecurity-focused business for process industries that Hexagon's PP&M division will provide to its customer base. It opens up new sales opportunities not just for PP&M, but also for our Manufacturing Intelligence and mining divisions. PAS serves some 300+ customers across 70 countries today. Slide 26, smart manufacturing for any machining application. We also acquired DP Technology, which is a leading developer and supplier of so-called computer-aided manufacturing or CAM technology in the quarter. It's based in California, and the flagship product is called ESPRIT, which is a smart manufacturing solution for almost any machining application.
If we combine DP Technology with our production software portfolio, we get a very strong position in the market, and this will also enhance and speed up our so-called smart manufacturing project.
Slide 27, semi-automatic machine control solution that reduce fatigue and operational costs. We're launching MC1 software for our Leica machine control solution for excavators, and it's going to bring a lot of benefit to the operator. He will be able, or she will be able, to work with less fatigue, less over digging, and reduced operational costs. Slide 28, we participate in deploying robot taxis field tests in Tokyo. It's a Japanese startup called TIER IV that is using our PACMod drive-by-wire system, testing robotic taxis in downtown Tokyo. Very exciting project. Slide 29. We're also launching a revolutionary GNSS or GPS service, RTK From the Sky, that will bring instant GPS accuracy worldwide. Slide 30, resolving key pain points for manufacturing customers.
We launch a new product which is called NCSIMUL 2021.1, which is a simulation software addressing long-suffered five-axis machine instability so that manufacturers can achieve quality without sacrificing productivity. This will drive efficiency and productivity throughout setting up of production operations. Slide 31, MSC Apex Generative Design 2021 is another product we're launching in the quarter within the MSC portfolio. It's an end-to-end solution for designers of high precision metallic components. This is going to improve performance significantly, in some parts up to 85% faster. Less human intervention than any other software in the market. A great development. Slide 32. More farmers now have access to the latest precision agriculture tools.
The Hexagon AgrOn platform has met Italian government requirements, and we have now deployed it in the fourth quarter in more than 30 farms in Italy.
We will soon roll it out to other countries in Europe. Slide 33. We've also helped Swiss Rail move and grow in the quarter. We signed a four-year corporate license renewal with Swiss Rail, where we're going to deploy GIS solutions and web and mobile components for the maintenance of the assets of Swiss Rail. Slide 34, empowering cities to fight cyber attacks and respond to emergencies. We got two orders for HxGN OnCall in the quarter. One was from the city of New Orleans in the United States, and the other one was from the Strathcona County Emergency Services in Alberta that encompass Calgary and Edmonton. Slide 35, multi-product subscription for the largest open-pit mine in Finland. This was Yara, the Finnish mining company that acquired Hexagon's suite of software products to improve productivity in its mining operations. Slide 36.
Collision avoidance systems was implemented in Ghana in the Gold Fields mine in Ghana that bought MineProtect and also MineProtect Operator Alertness. Slide 37. We had multiple wins in the quarter for our Content Program. One of the world's largest automotive manufacturers who wish to stay anonymous will use our program in its autonomous vehicle navigation rollout. Intel will also use the Hexagon Content Program aerial imagery to create AI-powered analytics and business intelligence. NAIP, the National Agriculture Imagery Program in United States, contracted Hexagon to refresh 14 states across the United States in 2021. Finally, the Ontario Ministry for Natural Resources contracted Hexagon to provide data for Ontario's Forest Resources Inventory program. Slide 38. Aerial data helps create digital twins of South Korea for national government.
SHINHAN Aerial Survey will use our CityMapper and our HxMap software to capture a 3D image of the country of South Korea, and that will generate 3D city models that will be used to develop the infrastructure in the country. Slide 39, Brussels Airport consolidates construction and infrastructure data. This is our AEC portfolio, we sold them Bricsys 24/7 as a document exchange platform to keep track of changes within the airport. That was it for the quarter. Environment, social, and governance. We launched targets for ESG in the quarter. If we move to slide 41. Our overarching targets are carbon neutrality in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. Carbon neutrality across the entire value chain, encompassing both one, two, and three emissions by 2050.
Sustainability supplier audits across 100% of our direct suppliers in risk areas by 2023, and at least 30% of our leadership positions filled by women by 2025. Moving on to slide 42. We do not stop there. The sustainability revolution will continue, so we're revving up plans to accelerate the world's transition to a greener economy. We will introduce this to you very soon, so stay tuned. With that, we've come to the dividend proposal from the board. Slide 44. The board of directors propose a dividend of EUR 0.65, which is a 5% increase over 2020. The dividend can be paid in Euro or Swedish krona. Furthermore, the board of directors proposes a share split seven to one after the AGM, if the AGM accepts it. In summary, if we summarize things, record operating earnings and margin despite significant currency headwind.
Super strong cash flow generation, 1% organic growth, solid growth in China and Geospatial Enterprise Solutions. We expect a continued sequential improvement in demand for Hexagon going into 2021. The board of directors propose a dividend of EUR 0.65 and a share split seven to one. With that, operator, I believe we've come to the end of the presentation, and we are now ready for any questions there might be.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you do wish to register for a question, please press the zero followed by the one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Magnus Kruber from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, Ola. Magnus here from UBS. A couple of questions from me. Could you comment a bit on the expectations for sequential growth into Q1 in MI? Is that accounting for normal seasonality? Normally Q1 would be weaker, so it would be interesting to see how we should think about seasonality on that basis through the course of 2021.
We believe that we're going to see a sequential recovery in auto and aero, which hampered Industrial Enterprise Solutions in the quarter. That goes for Q1 as well.
Okay. There is no unusual patterns in 2021 from a seasonality perspective?
No, I don't believe so. It hasn't happened yet, but I don't think so.
Perfect. That's very good. Could you comment a bit on the product mix overall? You had an adverse mix in IES, but does that mean the positive mix come from GES, or is it a mix between the business areas? I'm just trying to get a sense for the sustainability of the current mix there.
Within IES, you have an adverse impact on margin simply because PP&M, which is pure software contracted. Within MI, software outgrew hardware, which had a positive impact on our industrial segment. If we move to the Geospatial segment, definitely software and services outgrew hardware, even though hardware grew as well. You had a very positive impact there that you can see from the margin development.
Excellent. Thank you so much. Just the final one there, I think you commented on aerospace is now seeing a sequential improvement there into Q1. Has that got to do with the production restarts in some of the airframe manufacturers, or what do you see there?
No, we see a rebound from very, very low levels in aerospace. I think our comment is more related to auto, where in the fourth quarter we saw strong demand for electric vehicles, but in the first quarter, we also expect traditional combustion engine products to require investments and thus driving demand for Hexagon in those areas as well.
Perfect. Thank you much, Ola. Very clear. I'll give back the line.
Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Adam Wood from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning, thanks for taking the question. First of all, just on 2021, I wonder if there's any help you could give us in terms of the shape of recovery. We've obviously got some very large declines in 2020 as a base comparison, but within that, China was good. Could you maybe help us out a little bit with what you would say would be a strong recovery for Hexagon versus what would be more muted? For example, would it be possible to get back to the type of revenue base that you were doing in 2019, or do you think it takes longer to get back to that level? Maybe just digging in a little bit on the free cash flow, you commented that in Q1 you might have to give something back on the working cap.
Could you maybe just broaden that comment out to the year? Do you think 2021 runs below the normal conversion because you have to give something back on working cap given 2020 was so strong? Thank you.
Giving you an outlook on 2021 is not something we do. I guess we'll see. We're definitely not going to hold back. We're going to do our very best. Regarding working capital, I don't think we have to give anything back per se because within the working capital improvement in the fourth quarter were three really large deals, software deals, where we booked deferred revenue. We won't have to give that back. As we return to organic growth, obviously, we have to invest in working capital. Is that clear enough ?
That's perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Stacy Pollard from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, thank you very much. Just expansion around the Industrial division. How do you think of midterm growth potential in that division? Can you break that out for MI and PP&M?
What we expect is MI to turn around before PP&M, and PP&M could probably see a recovery throughout the year, but maybe with better numbers in the second half than the first half, whilst MI, I believe are much closer to a turnaround.
Okay, fair enough. Just regarding margins, the cost savings program looks to be seeing nice benefits already in Q4. Do you think that means you're on target for the old 27% target? Remember you had these midterm targets for 27%-28% for 2021. Do you think that's a possibility? At what point would we be getting some new midterm targets?
First of all, we reached our target in Q4. Without currency impact, we did 29%, and with currency impact, 28%. I think it's definitely achievable. It's hard to predict what 2021 will bring, no, definitely, that's achievable. We are discussing when to update you on our financial outlook, our long-term financial outlook. It will be definitely during 2021.
Okay. No, that sounds encouraging for 2021. I know there's some seasonality on the margins. I hadn't necessarily expected Q4 to be straight out, but that's very handy. Quick last one from me. Just gross margin. Same, I'm going for the midterm here. What do you think your midterm target is on gross margins? I know you'll give them to us eventually, but given this continued mix shift towards software, I presume that's not going to stop.
What is midterm for you?
Three to five years.
You have to wait for a capital markets day to get it.
Fair enough. Okay, I will wait. Thank you very much for the questions.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Alexander Virgo from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thanks very much. Morning, Ola. I hope you're well. I wanted to go through, I guess a little bit more detail the demand dynamics in the software, various elements of software business that you're seeing. China, obviously north of 20% growth. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about the demand dynamics in software in China. I wonder if you could be a little bit more specific around software versus hardware in MI. I'm just trying to understand how that plays out for the balance of the year, particularly given your comments around the positive bookings in IES and the start to the year in China. The second question, just on that margin question that Stacy had there.
Can you give us any indication of your expectation for FX headwinds for the year, maybe for EBIT, just to give us some idea of how we can break down the, I guess near on 200 basis points of improvement you need on a LTM basis to get up to that 27%?
Yeah. I think if we start with China demand, was it more towards software or was it general demand you were querying about?
Well, I guess a little bit of both would be helpful. The question was directed at software, but if you're talking about China more generally, then it would be helpful to understand the broader dynamics as well, given how strong it was, and given the comps are pretty easy in this calendar quarter.
No. First of all, 65% of MI is software and services, and China is the largest market. Obviously, our software portfolio was benefiting from the recovery in demand in China. What we saw in China was a broad-based recovery across the board. We saw our construction and infrastructure products growing significantly. We saw our auto, aerospace, electronics products growing. Both electronics, aero, and auto grew. Oil and gas grew in China, and infrastructure and construction. I don't know if that's enough. Software versus hardware in MI, as I said, 65% software services.
Okay. Software would be growing above that 20% number, presumably?
Yeah, correct. FX, we don't have a crystal ball on FX. If you apply the current exchange rates on 2021, we would have a negative impact on sales of 3.3% for fiscal 2021.
We should be applying a similar sort of drop through that you saw in Q4 to that number for an impact on EBIT?
Yeah, unfortunately, since it's the wrong currency, so to say, moving in the wrong direction.
No, that's great. That's very helpful, Ola. Thanks very much.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Daniel Djurberg from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you very much. Good morning. I have three questions. I will ask two first and then the last one. Can you comment more on the planned cost savings that you implemented in the 2020 program? How much of this is fully in place when entering 2021? Either planned cost savings or not the COVID cost savings related. The second question was really on FX you mentioned is as a hurdle of EUR 27 million on the EBIT in the quarter. Can you say how much of this has been mitigated by temporary OpEx savings on back of COVID-19? Thank you.
Thanks. I would say the planned cost savings were around 90%, 95% at the moment. Temporary cost savings have definitely played a role, but it's very hard to say what's temporary and what's longer term right now. We have a different behavior in the group today when we look at marketing expenses and travel expenses. I think that we're going to keep the lion's share of those savings. All in all, we think the cost savings were in the range of EUR 10 million in the fourth quarter.
Very helpful. Lastly, on ESG, you screen well in the EU taxonomy, I think, and I like your ESG targets and so on. Also your speech at the HxGN LIVE in 2019 was of course really good. I was thinking a little bit if you can comment on your, for example, if you look at Brazil, you have good growth in South America, and just to understand how you can secure a full ESG responsibility, for example, in surveying in Brazil, with regards to, for example, rainforest deforestation. How far do you go on your ESG responsibility there, for example?
I think you have to develop your question a bit because I'm not sure what you're alluding to.
No, not alluding. More that if you look at the next step of the forestry and something you will use, I guess the surveying equipment to build bridges or houses, whatever on this land. Just thinking more broadly on how you think about where your responsibility ends, so to say.
Yeah. No, it's an interesting and very difficult question to ask.
In general, first of all, our airborne mappers are mapping the deforestation in Brazil. We are a prerequisite to basically tell the authorities how severe is it, where has deforestation happened, and what can you do about it? Obviously, you can use our survey equipment if you build a bridge or a road through the jungle. You would have to cut down trees if you build a road. It's a bit hard for us to do anything about that, but I think the biggest problem with the rainforest is really that it's turned into agricultural land, and it's banned. The quicker we can deliver reports to government bodies about illegal deforestation occurring, the better, and that's where we put our emphasis right now.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Mikael Laséen from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes. Hi. One question here. You completed three acquisitions in Q4, and I was just wondering if you can comment on your acquisition pipeline and how much financial resources you have available for acquisitions going forward.
We have a good pipeline like always. Prices are at record levels. You have to be very careful making acquisitions at this moment in time. Yeah, it might be the peak in the pricing cycle. Our headroom with our own targets, we have EUR 2.6 billion, and that is to be below 2.5 x net debt to EBITDA. We have EUR 2.6 billion in our own balance sheet. Then obviously we can borrow on the acquired entity. Sorry, EUR 1.2 to reach 2.5x, EUR 2.6 for 3.5x, which is our covenant.
Okay, got it. Just one more, if I may. On North America, industrial segment was down 13%. Is this reflecting the market development in total, or have you seen any changes in the competitive situation?
No, it's the market. We are late in the cycle in MI. I think this comment goes for both what you saw in Western Europe, i.e. France, Germany, and United States, that typically our order intake turns around and starts to grow before we see it in invoice sales. That's where we're at at the moment.
Okay. Yeah, thanks.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sven Merkt from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Could you comment if you have seen any impact on your business or your customers from the recent transportation bottlenecks and rising shipping costs, especially between China and Europe? Secondly, you commented earlier that you have seen good growth within your AEC design portfolio. What about the other AEC products like Smart Build? Are you gaining traction with them?
Yes. We start with Smart Build. We launched it, and we got sales with two large customers, and I think 2021 is a year where we will talk considerably more about Smart Build. Regarding the transportation bottleneck, China, Europe, I wasn't aware of that, so we have obviously not suffered from it.
Okay. It's very clear. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Mohammed Moawalla from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you very much. Ola, in the past, you have commented on sort of breaking out the pure software growth relative to the kind of overall group organic growth. Could you give us a sense of that figure in Q4? You talked about some of the large deals that you've signed, which you are not able to recognize. Can you give us a flavor of which sort of segments they fell into? Secondly, I think just coming back to the point around growth this year, I think consensus is modeling sort of 8% organic growth, which is, I think, clearly the upper band of 5%-8% organic growth midterm that you've talked about in the past.
How feasible does that look this year, and should we expect this to be, again, more back-end loaded, or should we start to see that more evenly come through based on your comments of sequential improvement in MI starting in Q1? Thank you.
If we start with your last questions, we don't give forecasts, so I guess we will see. In May we'll do this again, then we can discuss Q1. The large deals were, well, we recognized it, but it wasn't perpetual deals that we got. It was subscription deals. We recognized the part that we could recognize. Most of it ended up as deferred revenue, and it was both in automotive and other sectors where we had great wins in the quarters. Regarding the software growth in the quarter, PP&M was negative, but everything else was growing. Fairly stable software growth.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Erik Golrang from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Three couple of follow-up questions to the last one on the software part there. You have a number of platforms now, software platforms on the industrial side. Is there any one in particular that is doing really well, MSC or Vero, or also within PP&M but outside oil and gas? I think you were kind enough to give us the absolute numbers on the pure license subscription revenues you had during the Q3, if you could do that for Q4 as well. Finally, if you've seen or expect to suffer to any extent from the semiconductor shortage that's happening more or less globally. Thanks.
Yeah. No, businesses that were doing really well were MSC, Bricsys, and our mining software portfolio. SI OnCall was very good as well. Several product lines were doing really well. When it comes to the license revenue, now you catch me without an answer. I really don't know what the license revenue was in the fourth quarter, but we can dig it up for you offline later on.
That will be helpful.
Yeah. We'll come back.
On the semi shortage, any issues for you there?
Not really. We might encounter a problem in Autonomy & Positioning, which is dependent on supplies, but so far it looks good, and I can't say that it's a prime concern for us going into Q1.
Very good. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Wasi Rizvi from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning. A couple of areas left for me. Just firstly on North America and survey and construction in particular, are you able to talk about what you're seeing there in terms of momentum? I know it's difficult for you guys to know for sure, but do you think there's any meaningful difference in the end market exposure you have in North America, in those markets, infrastructure versus commercial or wider markets? The second one was, I was hoping to hear a bit more about mining. It feels like there's been a step up there in growth. Firstly, has there been? Are you able to tell us what the growth has looked like last year versus previous years, maybe? Where's that coming from? Is that just the miners spending more? Is that new products you've got?
Or is it just something you've dedicated more resource towards? What's the runway for growth like in that business? How big could it be?
If we start with mining, we had good growth in the fourth quarter and in 2020 for our mining portfolio. I think what we're seeing is a strategy shift where the miners are more and more concerned about operational cost, and they realize that by deploying fleet management control software, following the life of a mine, as we call it, you can enhance your cost structure quite significantly. Since we are OEM neutral, we can deploy our systems on any OEM's equipment. We can roll it out quite easily throughout the operation of a mine. Mining is a good business for us, and we expect it to continue to grow in the years to come. Regarding North America, you talked about the survey demand, or can you repeat your question there?
Yeah, just on Surveying and Construction in those two markets in particular, I think you mentioned in the release that you had a weakness in surveying in GES, and just wondering what kind of momentum you're seeing in that market and whether you know whether there's more infrastructure or more commercial construction in your end market mix versus maybe the rest of the world?
We have a positive outlook on North America. We believe that we will see starting up of a lot of construction sites, in relation to both renewable energy and also traditional construction and infrastructure in 2021. I think the outlook is positive, and the weakness in the fourth quarter in surveying specifically, I think, might have been related to, well, you never know. It could have been weather or whatever.
Okay, got it. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Viktor Högberg from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. Just a brief question again on the leverage here, operational leverage in GES and IES. GES, very strong leverage in H2 2020. Is it more positively affected by the cost savings, or is it just purely due to the differences in growth? Is the cost savings fairly balanced between the two segments?
No, it's a perfect storm. We have cost savings, and we have mix improvements. That's why you can increase earnings in spite of having a weaker top line.
Okay. Also on the new ESG targets, how are you tracking today on the things that you point out in the release?
We're still awaiting the final report as to how we track. We will come back on that very shortly. We got 20% women in managing positions versus 30% as a target. At the moment, we're not a big culprit when it comes to CO2 emissions. We're designing software, and we're assembling precision equipment in air-conditioned facilities. Yes, we have a footprint, but it's not manufacturing in the traditional sense that we're doing.
We believe we are very well in line with the targets we've set.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Joachim Gunell from DNB Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning. As the Chinese recovery has obviously decoupled from the rest of the world, can you perhaps just provide your two cents on the competitive landscape there? Are you seeing any, say, new type of competition emerging, or is there any, say, shift from Chinese customer preferring to purchase from domestic suppliers rather than Hexagon?
First of all, I think we are very well-entrenched, so we are almost a domestic supplier. What's changed in China is that we're now seeing a lot of Chinese companies becoming global contenders in traditional markets. I'll give you one example. NIO will probably start challenging Tesla for sales in both North America, Europe, and Asia for electric vehicles. In high tech areas is really where we see the Chinese companies expand.
That's clear. Thank you. Just finally, would it be fair to assume that, say when you decide to provide new medium-term targets, that they would be more growth-oriented given where you are now on profitability?
I think we have a bit more to do on profitability, but growth is of course at the core now when we start capitalizing and getting momentum with the technology portfolios that we've built over the past 10 years.
Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you. The next question comes from Magnus Kruber from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Magnus here. Just a couple of follow-ups there. First on the comment, I think you commented something about EUR 10 million in savings in Q4. Was that short-term savings? Secondly on to that, did you say that you had reached some 90%, 95% run rate on the long-term savings at the moment?
Yes. When we talk about long-term savings, it's the reduction in force we're measuring. There is a mix of short and long-term savings in the EUR 10 million. I would say that the lion's share is still short-term, and if we're lucky, we can replace that with more longer-term savings.
Okay. Got it. I think also to the previous question, could you help us a bit on how much was pure software in Q4? I think you said you were basically flat on the combined portfolios there.
You mean pure or software and services?
Yeah, ex- services part.
We'll see. 35%-40% is the best guesstimate sitting here today.
Got it. Thank you so much. That is very good, Ola. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Alexander Virgo from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi, thanks for squeezing me back in, Ola. Just a clarification, actually, same point. The EUR 10 million sounds quite low. I just want to make sure that that's a bridge number, i.e., the incremental year-on-year rather than the absolute number in Q4. Presumably, therefore, the 90%-95% comment you made there on reduction in headcount means that the savings benefit from those people leaving the organization is yet to be seen. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you.
You have a lot of moving parts in the quarter, so it is compared to the pre-corona situation in Q1. That is when we refer to the EUR 10 million. Looking at it, you have a EUR 27 million adverse FX impact, which obviously also has some cost elements into it. No, the long-term savings have not kicked in fully. We're still living off short-term savings.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks. I believe that's it. We have time for one final question if there is one.
Thank you, sir. That's a follow-up question from Erik Golrang from SEB. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah. Thank you. Question on the wins there on the Hexagon Content Program with an auto OEM and Intel. How do they buy your services from the Content Program? Are those subscriptions, or do they buy a one-time data dump, or what kind of setup do you have on that side?
It's a subscription service, so it could be a monthly, a quarterly, or an annual invoicing commitment.
If you look on the Content Program now, it's been there for a number of years. What's the growth trajectory been for the past two, three years? It was a very strong start, if I recall correctly. What's happened since?
I believe that over the past five years, we've averaged around 10%.
Thank you.
Thanks. With that, I think we end this Q&A session. Thank you, everyone, for listening in, and we'll do it again in Q1.