Hello and good morning, everyone, welcome to this presentation. It's the first interim report for 2023 for Prevas. I'm Johan Strid, the CEO of Prevas, I have my colleague, Helena Burström, our CFO, present at the meeting as well. If you want to look at the slides, the slides are available at our website on investor relations. Welcome. This is our slogan. Hello Possibility. We like to look at the possibilities. We have two main offerings. We are a focused consultancy company. One of the main offerings is product development. We develop physical products which includes design, mechanics, electronics, embedded software and application software as well as a complete solution. We have been involved in over 8,000 different products the past 30 years, so we know the pitfalls, we know the success criteria and so on.
Another main offering is production development, and that is about automation, digitalization, IT, automation in the industry, manufacturing and in factories. We have tons of experiences in that area as well the past 30 years and so on. The customers use us normally when it's a little bit more tricky than usual, when the requirements are really tough. That's when we perform at our best. Our home base is Scandinavia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Our turnover is about SEK 1.4 billion. We were founded 1985 and we have been a public noted company since 1998. That's us very briefly. This is the agenda, a brief introduction. We will have a look at the financial performance and a few comments related to that.
We want to present our view on the market and our way forward, maybe the most important item on the agenda is the questions and answers. State any question you like we'll do our best to answer them as well as possible. First of all, I would like to direct a big thank you to all the different stakeholders in Prevas. It was a lot of records this quarter, regarding revenue, profit margin, number of employees, related to gender equality as well. Lots of record this quarter. Thank you, all colleagues , all partners, customers, investors and the other stakeholders as well. Thanks a lot. Let's have a glance at the financial performance. This is a snapshot from the report. Historical records for turnover, profit and margin. Lot of numbers. The net turnover increased to SEK 394 million.
The EBITDA profit was 59.5, the margin 15.1 and the earnings per share increased to 3.18 SEK. I would like to comment a few of the items a little bit more. The revenue, it increased with 25% and a little bit more than half of that was related to organic growth, and the rest was related to the acquisitions that we did last year. They contributed in a really good way to the increase in revenue. They also contributed to the increase in the EBITDA result. Some of them performed really well and some have a way to go to improve their performance. We increased the revenue with 25%, the EBITDA profit with 35% and the margin increased as well.
It's important to remember the number of working days and we had one more working day this year compared to last year. That varies between different quarters. Sometimes it's one more and sometimes it's one less. It's important to look at the long-term trend and we will have a glance at that as well later on. We're not satisfied, we're quite happy with the situation that we managed to increase the profit even if the utilization went down a bit this quarter. That's related to our long-term strategy related to providing value for the customers. It's also a lot of hard work last year regarding pricing, the ratio between prices and wages, cost efficiency and so on. Lots of hard work for many colleagues to accomplish this situation.
A good point about this is that we also have an upside on the result. This is not our top performance. We can increase the development of the company as always, but we can also increase the utilization. There's an upside related to this performance. Regarding the earnings per share, it increased to SEK 3.18. A note here is that it was affected with about SEK 0.25 based on the synthetic options. Those options were settled the first quarter, so it will not affect the EPS on Q2 and going forward. That's a good aspect as well. If we look at the long-term trend, a single quarter is important of course, but it may be even more important with a long-term trend.
We have increased the profit steadily. This is EBIT, not EBITDA. We have increased the margin time over time as well. The long-term trend looks quite good. Our ambition is, of course, to continue with this journey, increasing the profit and develop the company further, of course. Now a few words from Helena Burströmmy colleague, Helena.
Thank you very much, Johan. I will give you some cash flow highlights. Cash amounted to SEK 83 million at the end of Q1 2023, compared to SEK 129 million in Q1 2022. The major cash outflows in the period from the end of Q1 2022 to the end of Q1 2023 are acquisitions with SEK 52 million, including 40% of the partly owned subsidiary, Prevas Gävle in Q1 2023, affecting cash flow with SEK 7 million and 4 acquisitions in financial year 2022 with SEK 45 million. Dividend paid SEK 45 million in 2022, and amortizations, SEK 23 million, were of SEK 6 million in Q1 2023.
It relates to a loan taken in 2021 of SEK 90 million, of which SEK 39 million remains in the end of Q1, 2023. Finally, the synthetic options, SEK 12 million settled in Q1, 2023. Overall, the cash position remains good for Prevas. Net debt in relation to EBITDA is negative, which means that there is no net debt. Prevas is, thus, well below the financial target of maximum 2x EBITDA. EBITDA, sorry. The equity ratio is good and amounts to 59.3% in Q1, 2023, compared to 56.9% in 2022. With that, I hand over to you again, Johan.
Thank you, Helena. Now a few words about our view on the market and also a few words about our way forward. If we start with the market, this is our market. We have a good distribution of different industry segments. There's a lot of things going on in the defense area, for example. Also in the energy sector, lot of demands and needs that is growing right now. We are working with electrification in the engineering sector, automotive and steel and so on. There's a lot of things going on, and we have a good distribution between different type of segments. We also have a good distribution regarding our customers. The top 5 customers are global, really good companies, Saab, Ericsson, ABB, Sandvik, and Atlas Copco. They amount to less than 25% of the total revenue in our company.
We also work with startups, small companies, and medium companies. We have a good distribution on the customer side as well. Our view on the market is that the long-term demand for advanced technology and the ability to understand complex problems and a complex context and finding the right technical solution and having the ability to implement that solution successfully so it actually adds value and works in the environment as well. That need and demand is growing over time, and it's a long-term trend, and it will continue for sure. We are very confident in that increasing demand. Regarding the market right now, we view that as normal. A few customers are reducing their spendings, and many customers are increasing their spendings depending on their situation. It's normal with some uncertainties regarding components and whatnot. That's the normal situation.
A consultancy company is particularly good at handling an uncertain situation. We have a positive view on the long-term trend and our view right now it is that it's a normal market with some variances between different regions and so on, of course. Based on the positive view on the market, based on our historical performance and our trend, and based on our ambitions going forward, we have also revised our financial targets. We have revised it regarding the margin. The EBITDA margin shall amount to at least 12%. Formerly, it was 10%, so at least 12% over time. We have kept the growth goal regarding at least 10% over time.
As Helena mentioned, we are well below the net debt situation, we're well equipped for potential acquisitions going forward as well. We have also changed the 50% target regarding dividend to have a range. We have been a little bit below a few years below 50%. It's possible to increase it or decrease it depending on the particular need that year. It's wise to have a range instead of specific number in that case. We are revised the financial targets, that's reflecting our ambition going forward. The way forward is about navigating in complex and exciting world, we want to continue executing on our long-term endeavors. That is about to be perceived as a premium company by all of our stakeholders, the colleagues, the partners, the customers, the investors, and the society as such.
We want to contribute to sustainability as well, of course. That was the presentation. Now we welcome your questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. You can also write your questions by the chat below if you are following on the webcast. The next question comes from Stefan Knutsson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Morning, Johan and Helena, congrats on a very good report. Just a few comments, if possible, Johan, on where you see sort of the macro environment. I know that you said in the report that you don't see, that you still see solid demand, but somewhat lower utilization rates. Just if you can give some more flavor on what you're seeing from your customer?
Yeah. First of all, thank you, Stefan. Yeah, as mentioned, we view the market as normal, and there are some variances in geography, for example. A few regions are a little bit lower, and some are a little bit higher. It's a huge demand in the defense industry, in the energy sector, for example, while it's more normal in other sectors as well. We also grew quite a lot in the end of last year, and sometimes it takes a little bit time to get new assignments to new employees. We didn't grew that much. We grew a little bit this quarter, it's both related to the growth and also related to the market, the somewhat lower utilization. Does that answer your question?
Yeah. Sure. Just, I mean, how would you summarize that you have, like your visibility now versus, maybe, six months ago? Have it improved or is it the same?
I would say it's the same. In general, it has both improved and not because due to the challenges with components, some customers are actually ordering projects that we will perform 2024, and that's not the normal case for consultancy company. We have a longer view in some cases, and at the same time, there are, of course, uncertainties, as always in our business. I would say both, actually.
Perfect. Then one additional question from me regarding the margin here. I mean, 15% in consultancy business is sort of unheard of, at least if you're at scale. That is really impressive. I get the feeling that, you know, every store is not aligned, based on your comments. Can you just comment a bit on maybe seasonality effects? When I look at the quarters from last year, I know that Q1 2022 was also really strong. If you have any comments on seasonality there would be helpful.
Yeah, sure. That's not only reflecting Prevas. In general, Q1 and then Q4 are the strongest quarters, then you have Q2 and Q3. It's normal variances. This year we were boosted in Q1 because it was one working day more. The effect will maybe be a little bit more significant this year, but that evens out over time. I think the long-term trend is important as well.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much for your answers.
Sure. Thank you, Stefan.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time on the teleconference. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments and written questions.
Okay. Are there any written questions?
Yes. With many companies shifting their production from Asia back to Europe, how does Prevas see this trend impacting its business? Do you believe it will have a positive effect on your operations, and if so, in what ways?
Good question. The question was if we see any trend or impact that companies are moving back from Asia to Europe and to Scandinavia as well regarding manufacturing. We do see that. It's a trend regarding blockification, and you want to have manufacturing close to the customers and maybe have manufacturing in all different parts of the world. That means our need and demand from the customers is growing in our area, and that means more business for us. It also means that the challenge or the need for automation is increasing. We're working a lot with automation in the industry and also about having the correct measurements and measure on data and seeing trends and working with machine learning algorithms to optimize the manufacturing processes and so on.
There's a lot of things going on that is really exciting, and it's a trend that is in favor of Prevas as well. Thank you for the question. It's, it's really exciting. Any more questions?
The recent increase in inflation, some companies may also be facing pressure to raise salaries for their employees. I guess you're used to high competition, but has it increased further?
No. I would say that employment market is still very busy in general, so it hasn't slowed down, and it hasn't increased either. I think there's a lack of really competent people, and it's about having the right attraction for talents and engineers and designers and so on. It's a competition. It's a competitive regarding of the employment market. I would say it's no big changes actually regarding that right now.
Very strong start of the year in organic growth. How is it looking in April? Still strong demand, or do you start to see a slowdown?
We have a positive view on the market in general. We don't provide any forecasts, but I would like to comment going back to our view on the market that it's, in general, a normal market, a fairly busy market, and we see a lot of demands and needs, and we are quite optimistic, and we have also revised our financial targets. I wouldn't like to comment April or a specific forecast, but I hope that answers the question in general.
I have one last question, and it's regarding something that you said earlier. What is your estimation on the effect of one day more in the morning?
A good question as well. I don't have an exact number, but one working day more or less affects a lot in a consultancy company. You can calculate like 800 consultants' times the normal hourly fee and so on, then you can add that up and subtract that from both the revenue and the profit. You have a rough number on how to calculate it. Sure. Absolutely.
Prevas being impacted by the component supply disturbance for OEMs in recent years. Has it driven a higher level of product redesign projects?
Yes. The question is if the lack of components and the challenges in that area has affected our business, and it has. Actually in a positive way because there have been some needs for redesign of solutions and products and lots of work with finding the right hardware and so on. It has, in most cases, increased the demand, and in some cases, it has delayed projects because lack of components and uncertainties. I think in general, it has increased the demand from the customers a bit. It has been both sides on that coin. Any more questions? Okay. Me and Helena say thank you for your attention.
The presentation will be on our website and the slides as well, and you're welcome as always later on with questions as well. Thank you for your attention.