Good morning and welcome to the presentation of Investment AB Latour's year-end report for 2023. The first part of the presentation will be in listen-only mode, and we then open up for questions. To be able to ask a question, dial star 5 on your telephone keypad or use the chat window. I will now hand over to CEO Johan Hjertonsson and CFO Anders Mörck.
Thank you, Katarina. Welcome everybody to our Q&A report earnings call. I'm here together with our CFO Anders Mörck, as mentioned. Very welcome, everybody. If we start with the first slide, our usual slide that we have, and we'd like to say then that our group, the structure is unchanged. We had a good end of the year despite the declining economic climate and turbulence last year, as you know. Despite that, we had a record high profit for the full year and actually a record high operating margin. Order intake has slowed down somewhat in the last quarters, but mixed picture between geographies and markets. The residential segment has been hit harder in the downturn, while the energy-efficient sector is growing. We're well prepared to adapt if needed.
I would also like to highlight that the energy-efficient sector is an important area for Latour, and we're well positioned within this segment. Our efforts in sustainability continues. We have established a target for all our holdings, wholly owned and listed companies, to commit to the Science-Based Targets Initiative, SBTI, with verified targets. As per today, our wholly owned businesses of size have committed and are now working with target setting. The majority of our listed holding has committed and three all-verified targets: Assa Abloy, Fagerhult, and Securitas. So congratulations to those three. And then if we go on to the next slide, we have a picture of all our 10 holdings, listed holdings. Clearly, a very positive underlying growth from profit development in the last 10 years, as you can see. We own quality companies who have the ability to grow and win market shares in both booms and recessions.
Our holdings development in 2023 has in general been good, some of them very good. The order intake has weakened for most of the companies, but the picture is mixed. Net sales and profit development has been positive, and we see that the absolute majority of the companies who have reported up until today have proposed increased dividends. Acquisitions, it's been a very active year. For example, we can mention that ASSA ABLOY has finalized the acquisition of Hardware and Home Improvement and also conducted a high level of add-on acquisitions during last year. HMS have signed an agreement to acquire Red Lion Controls in the U.S. with full support from Latour, and we will participate in the new share issues during 2024, which is part of the financing for the aforementioned deal.
If we go to the next slide, total return for the portfolio, we have increased our what has changed since we talked last time. We have increased our holdings in CTEK during the fourth quarter from 31.6% to 33% of the shares in the company. Apart from that, no changes in our listed portfolio. Stock market ended strongly after a very volatile year. During the year, the investment portfolio value has increased to SEK 78.8 billion, an increase of 23.9%, whereas the SIX RX increased 19.2%. Until Friday of last week, the portfolio value fell to SEK 73.6 billion, with a total return so far this year of -6.7%, where the SIX RX is -1.4%. If we go over to the next slide and we talk about our wholly owned operations, the wholly owned operations ended the year in a solid manner despite the economic slowdown.
Order intake has decreased in the last quarter. However, we had organic growth in the last quarter, partly driven by a few larger orders three times. We assessed that customer purchase behavior is now normalized to a large extent. Our operations targeting the residential segment have noticed a decline in demand. Also, Caljan's order intake has been on a lower level since a year and a half, which is a normalization effect of very strong order intake during the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022. However, demand for, for example, energy-efficient products is developing. Our wholly owned operations are spread over different markets and geographies, all of them not affected by a slowdown at the same time.
Looking at the industrial operations as a whole, order intake in the quarter increased by 11%, organic 5%, and net sales increased by 1% organic market share compared to a very strong last quarter of 2022. Quarterly EBIT results amounted to SEK 856 million, a decline of 8% compared to a record quarter last year with higher volumes. Margins amounted to 13.2%. Full year, our businesses have good cost control. On the whole year, our businesses have good cost control, protects the profit in an effective manner in an environment. We have delivered on the very high order book that we entered the year with last year. Total growth for order intake was 5% and 13%, operating profit total growth of 19% to SEK 3,807,000,000. The EBIT margin was 14.9% for the full year.
And lastly, we had a very strong cash flow generation amounting to SEK 4.7 billion last year. So in summary, it's a very strong result and yet another record year. And we're very happy and proud of this result on behalf of all team members in Latour. And if we talk a bit about acquisitions, going into the next slide. After many acquisitions during 2021 and 2022, we deliberately lowered the tempo. Activities are still ongoing throughout the year with a good pace. And we started 2024 with three finalized transactions. In 2023, we are going to acquire Dalair in January and Latour Future Solutions invested in Quantify in July. This year, 2024, in January, Baste & Scholer was acquired to Latour Industries.
& Scholer is a German leading manufacturer of components for elevators, manufactures, and sells bespoke fixtures for elevator cabins and a broader range of electronic components to lift operators and OEMs, mostly targeting modernization projects. Net sales is around EUR 6 million. Also in January, we acquired Eelectron and Epas to Bemsiq. Eelectron is an Italian pioneer within the KNX technology and has over 25 years of experience in the development of hardware and software devices for smart buildings, energy efficiency, and hospitality applications. Epas is a German developer and manufacturer of KNX and DALI building automation devices. Together, Eelectron and Epas have an estimated yearly net sales of EUR 26 million. Lastly, we acquired PBL and Condor to the Nord-Lock Group. PBL is a Nord-Lock distributor in northwestern Canada, and Condor is a niche manufacturer of specialized metal components.
Together, P.B.L. and Condor have an estimated net sales of CAD 7 million. Having said that, I would like to hand over to Anders. So over to you. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Johan. It's a pleasure to speak about all of our business areas. We start with Bemsiq on the first picture. For Bemsiq, the order intake was slightly weak compared to the very strong previous quarters. Then with weaker, we mean it was only growing organically by 6%, whereas the full year had organic growth of 10%. The total growth in net sales was 6%. That, however, was an organic decline for the quarter with -7%. It was a little bit dip in net sales, but very good order intake. Bemsiq has ongoing investments in R&D leading to several product launches in 2024. This will have a slightly negative effect on the margin, but only in the short run.
The operating result was, as an outcome of a little bit lower sales, SEK 55 million for the quarter and at a record level then for the full year. And as Johan said, we made two acquisitions, or rather one, in bringing two companies to us in January. In the short term, the market climate is a little bit uncertain, but in the long term, it's in a positive market sentiment. So very well done, Mikael and team for the achievements during 2023. Let's go to the next business area, which is Caljan. And as you can see, in the five-year chart, the business is now double the size than in 2020. This is more or less all because of organic growth. But as you also know, we have concluded for quite many quarters now that the order intake has been on a low level.
But the growth that came before this should be in hindsight when we think about this. Customers overall for Caljan have been more conservative when it comes to capital expenditures. And therefore, the order intake is on a lower level. Market activities are gradually starting to increase. But as we noted before, the assessment is that net sales will continue to decrease in the short term. Net sales in the quarter was well below corresponding period last year, but still on a quite decent level, considerably higher than the present order intake. However, the lower volumes resulted in an operating profit lower than last year. Caljan has conducted a cost-saving program to decrease fixed costs and closed down the production facility in Denmark to consolidate the capacity to Latvia and the U.S. instead.
The full-year profit for Caljan is the second highest so far in Caljan's history and a good operating margin of 17.9%. Thank you very much, Henrik and team, for taking care of this situation in a very professional manner. We go to the next business area, which is Hultafors Group. Slightly weaker development during the quarter for Hultafors. You should bear in mind that the fourth quarter in 2022, in very many ways, was a record quarter. The business unit, personal protective equipment within Hultafors, is developing very, very strong, but slightly weaker number than for the other business areas. We also see a bit more volatility in the demand from month to month. This is very typical for Hultafors when the business climate is a little bit more uncertain.
The gross margins have been strong and contribute to a very good profitability together with effective cost management. So the result then for Hultafors was a little bit lower, but still on a strong level for the quarter at SEK 307 million. Full year has been very positive, with record EBIT amounting to SEK 1.1 billion. Very, very good. Very well done, Martin and team. And we go to the next business area, which then is Latour Industries. Here we have a mixed picture regarding order intake between the business units, but overall on a quite good level with organic growth. The market is, however, a bit hesitant, and order intake also here quite volatile between the months. Net sales grew by 7% in total and 3% organically. But as said, then with a very different picture for the different business units.
Earnings and profitability as a whole is developing in the right direction, and operating profit grew by 34% to SEK 95 million with an operating margin of 8.2%. Then, as you can see in the heading for this picture, this business area is building the basis for future business areas. This means that the profitability has good prospects to grow even stronger going forward. You can see in the five-year chart that that is true as well. During the quarter, the lift-related companies, together with the recently acquired Baste & Scholer that was acquired in January, now have formed a business unit called InnovaLift. We're really looking forward to that going forward. All in all, very well done, Björn and your team. This also sums up to Latour Industries' best year ever. Very, very good. We go to the next business area, which is Nord-Lock.
The order intake is just below corresponding quarter last year, which at that point was a record high quarter. The net sales showed strong organic growth of 13%, all regions and segments then contributing positively. These high volumes are contributing to the best quarter for Nord-Lock ever, so the best fourth quarter, sorry for that, with an EBIT of SEK 98 million, despite the negative effect from restructuring costs of about SEK 8 million. Also the full year was the best year ever for Nord-Lock. In January, then Nord-Lock made these acquisitions in Canada that Johan mentioned before. So very, very well done, Fredrik and your team. Also many thanks to you, Fredrik, now that you have decided to leave us for new challenges outside Latour. You should remember, we will always be here for you.
So let's go to Swegon, the last business area. Swegon had a very strong order intake that grew by 14% in the quarter, which, of course, is very positive. It was partly driven by a few large orders, but also with a good demand within commercial buildings overall. Sweden and the Nordics are still hit by the lower demand within the residential sector. We see relatively strong demand within sustainable solutions, HVAC systems, cooling and heating services. Net sales for the quarter was organically lower than last year. And as you know, the corresponding period last year was boosted after the recovery that we had from when we had major disruptions in the supply chain during the summer 2022. And this then explaining the lower EBIT level this year compared to last year.
Full year for Swegon was very, very strong, growing by 25% and with an EBIT margin of 12.8%, summing up to yet another record year. So very well done, Andreas and team, and summing up, very well done everyone in the business areas. We turn to the next page, Katarina, and we see the Net Asset Value growing during the year by 27.5% to SEK 198 per share. And this then could be compared to the SIX RX that grew by 19.2%. This means when we compare with the share price at December that was SEK 263, that sorry, my computer went down, so I lost my picture. I hope you can hear me. So I will speak without picture. Sorry for that. Yeah, we have a premium then when we compare the share price to the Net Asset Value of 33%.
On this Friday last week, we also measured the net asset value. It had decreased a bit to SEK 190, and the share price at the same day closed at SEK 270, which then was a premium to the net asset value of about 42%. Also, I should mention the net debt, which decreased during the quarter from SEK 11.7 billion to SEK 10 billion, a very large decrease. This was because of a very, very strong operational cash flow in the period, and partly also because strengthening of the Swedish kronor that reduced our debt a little bit. So very good development. The net debt now corresponds to about 7% of our investments, leaving a pretty nice headroom for further acquisitions. Now, Johan, I will leave back to you.
Thank you, Anders. Excellent presentation. Thanks a lot. So we go over to our financial targets.
As you know, fairly recently, a month ago, we changed and increased our financial targets. So in summary, the targets are to be growing more than 10% per year, having an operating margin of about 15%, and a return on operating capital of about 15%. So during the last months, which is last year, our growth was 13%. The EBIT margin was 14.9%, and the return on operating capital was 16%. So a very strong performance, and we're very happy to that. 0.1 percentage points left for the operating margin target. And then if we go back to our dividend slide, the good development and our strong financial positions gives us the possibility to increase our dividend again to SEK 4.10 per share, which is an increase of 11%. And this is proposed by the board of directors. And the proposal is in line with the dividend policy.
As you can see on the chart, we have a very strong history of increased dividends. We hope that shall continue going forward. Lastly, on the last slide, overall, as a summary, I'd like to say it was a very strong year for Latour, both in the listed and wholly owned operations. Latour is a long-term sustainable investment company and a responsible owner creating value for our shareholders. We own profitable companies, and we have a strong financial position, which will enable us to continue investing in both existing and new holdings to enable future growth. We have an ambition to grow both organically and acquisitions, but a large portion of the potential still remains. As you can see on this map, we have 80% of our operations in Europe, only 14% in America, and 5% in Asia.
So ample and large room to grow, lots of possibilities going forward. Having said that, that's the last slide and the last part of the listen-only mode. And now, Anders and myself, we're open to take questions from you. Thanks.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from David Johansson from Nordea Markets. Please go ahead.
I have three questions. First, could you comment a bit on the order intake, which to me looks quite strong here, actually? To what extent would you say this is driven by a larger type of projects, or should we view this more as a broad-based recovery now?
And if you have any view looking at 2024, I'll leave it there for my first question.
Okay. Thank you, David. I just want, I think, yeah, we're also happy to that strong order intake to underline your point in the quarter. It's to some extent some fairly large orders that we got in the quarter. But I think it's also a, nobody will know, right? But hopefully, I mean, we are in a downturn. We are in a recession. That's clear. But hopefully, it will be a fairly soft landing going forward. But I'm not a macro economist, so wouldn't comment on that macro view. But hopefully, there is a soft landing coming in. I think one can think maybe the next one or two quarters will be a little bit more. And then if you're optimistic, quarter three, quarter four should be better.
But there's also some geographic effects into this. You see North America fairly strong, sorry. And you see Europe fairly okay, but a little bit less strong than the U.S. and Northern Europe, maybe a little bit weaker. And actually, Sweden is one of the weaker countries in the mix. And as you can see from our numbers, a very large portion of our sales and order intake is outside Sweden in that sense. And also to underline again, as I said in the report, yes, Latour has many. Our businesses are fairly related to the building sector. I would say the building sector is more depressed in Sweden than elsewhere, to my earlier comment. And secondly, as we have highlighted, we are very well positioned in the energy-efficient sector within the building sector.
For instance, with Fagerhult's energy-efficient lighting, Swegon's very energy-efficient ventilation products, BEV6 room controllers for building automation and saving energy in buildings. That's a growing segment within the building sector. Very long answer to an important and short question.
I appreciate the clarity there. My second question on Swegon, I think circling back to your comments on volumes and maybe tougher comparative figures, could you talk a bit about the growth drivers here looking at orders? And do you think it will be enough for sales to grow now in 2024? And also, if you could break down the volume impact on margins here in the quarter as well, that would be helpful. Thanks.
Yeah, but I can't do all of your job, David, right?
Okay. All right.
You have to analyze a little bit. But I think, I mean, as I said earlier, I don't think we should be more specific per company. But my earlier comments on order intake still holds, and they're very valid for Swegon as well. I think we can select that unless Anders wants to add.
No, I just can say that you know that we have had these comments about normalization before. And you know also that, for example, the third quarter was weak on order intake. And we tried to explain at that point that the normalization is not over yet. And now we say that the normalization is more or less true. And so the order intake that we will see going forward now will be more of a true picture. But we still had some normalization effects in the fourth quarter.
And that said, that would mean that the order intake was quite good also in the fourth quarter if we reduce the one-offs, so to say. Then, of course, when it comes to margins, as you ask about, that will be a mix effect also going forward. But you never know. We don't look for one quarter ahead. We look for many, many years ahead when we are going forward. And we see that we have a good position for long-term, very profitable growth.
Thank you for that, Anders. And the last one from me on Caljan. I think you said in the report that activity looks better now with quite hefty growth on orders compared to previous quarters, at least. Does this mean that these types of bigger projects will increase now from customer in 2024?
And also struggling a bit with the margin here, would you say Q4 now is at a more normalized level? And do you think a 17%-18% margin is possible now looking at the full year, given your current pipeline? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, David. I can take that. And then you can add, Anders, if you want, I think. Remember, during the pandemic, Caljan sells automation equipment to the logistic sector, right? So during the pandemic, when e-commerce grew through the roof, Caljan actually increased its order intake and sales by about 100%, fully organic. That's quite a lot to handle. And then when the pandemic was over, as you know, e-commerce normalized and came down, and then also investments into logistic centers and so on. On top of that, these investments are capital investments. And kind of that's the first thing you do.
You stop capital investments in a downturn. But we see in some months back, we see early signs that this is reversing. And that's the big logistic companies need to start investing again in their logistic centers. So hopefully. Bottom out on the order intake at this level, and it should increase throughout the year. And when it comes to operating margins, I think they should be considerably higher than those that are reported when we have a more normalized order intake in Caljan. Don't want to be more specific than that, but they should be better than the ones you see now. Yes.
Thank you for that. Those were my questions.
Thank you, David.
The next question comes from Linus Sigurdsson from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Johan and Anders, and good morning. So I'd like to start off with a question on M&A.
You say that you end the year with a good M&A pipeline. Is it fair to assume that this commentary holds true also after the acquisitions you've made now in the start of the year? And also, should we expect more sort of continued bolt-on type acquisitions rather than larger transactions as we go further into the year? Thank you.
Thank you, Linus. Great question. Yes. Despite the recent acquisitions, there are actually five companies in recent transactions that we did in January. That does not mean that our M&A pipeline is depleted in any way. We have a strong and good pipeline going forward. And to your second question, yes, you will see bolt-on acquisitions. But you may also see new platform investments or larger acquisitions on top of that. So we don't exclude the one for the other.
To Anders' point, we have a good firepower, so to speak, in our balance sheet and can have a very active M&A agenda going forward. We have kind of released our organization to have a stronger and more active M&A agenda going forward. Deliberately, it was slower last year because we digested and integrated some 22 companies that were acquired in 2021 and 2022. So it was all in control that we had a slower pace. We also think pricing and valuation on companies is more realistic now and going forward.
Yeah. Understood. Thank you for those clarifications. Then secondly, so cost inflation seems to have come through more than it did at the start of 2023. Would you agree on that analysis? And are there any details you can give on what's driving that? Thank you.
Yeah, cost inflation is coming through.
We have also been very good in driving our price management. And you would see that gross are up in most of our operations and businesses. And it's to a large extent because of good cost control, but also because of good price management. The weaker EBIT resulting percentages, I would say, is attributable mainly to lower volume in Q4 and therefore less fixed costs in Q4. Do you want to add, Anders?
Yes. No, it's correct. Lower volumes, specifically for some of our companies were boosted in the end of 2022. Yes.
Great. Thanks. Those are my questions.
Thank you, Linus.
Thank you, Linus. And we do not have any questions on the chat, Johan.
Okay. Then I think we are complete with our Q&A session. And thank you, everybody, for listening in.
Hopefully, I will speak to you all and listen to your questions in our Q1 report coming up later this year. Over and out, and thanks a lot from Anders and myself.