Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's Vitrolife Report on Operations 2018 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Friday, 8th of February, 2019. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Thomas Axelsson. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much for the introduction. Today, the speakers will be at this report on operations 2018, and I will focus on the Q4 , will be Mikael Engblom, the CFO of the company, and myself, Thomas Axelsson, the CEO. Please, change page to number two, so we can start go through the activities for the full year and also for the last quarter. If you see for the full year and then compare this with the Q4, we have during the year, have had good profitability for the full year. The EBITDA level has been 42% margin, and we are keeping up the EBITDA level also for the Q4 with 42% margin.
What we can see for the full year is that we have had an sales increase in local currency by 5%, and for this last quarter, the sales increase was 12% in local currency. The sales for the full year, 10%, and the sales for the last quarter, 18%. Summarize the Q4 compared to the full year is that it's been a profitable year, and we are having a good growth within the business, and it is increasing at the end of the year. By that, please go to page number three. Let's see what has happened the last quarter within the business units. The business units, as you know, is that our largest business unit is Media.
What's good with the media business is that all regions has a good organic growth, as we can see also within this unit and later on, is that the growth on media are currently well back in for instance, China. There are a good correlation between the business unit media and the growth in important regions. If you look on disposable devices, the growth has been 32% in this quarter. I would like to say that some of the challenges that we have had in this disposable devices has been the transformation between different products. We have new products, as you know, probably, that are regulatory approved, and we had some capacity problem in changing old products with the new products.
With that being done, we are able to fulfill more customer demand. Together with that, also the production capacity has been increased, and we are continuing working with automation and continuing in investment in disposable devices, so we can continue to have a good growth. 32% within that unit is very good. Timelapse, the sales for the quarter was SEK 94 million, and this hardware business growth is growing with 14%. It is to some extent, a little bit lower than some earlier quarters, and as mentioned before, we will see that there are some variances between quarters.
14% still is a good number. Comparing that to then the last and smallest business unit, that is ART Equipment, there we have a decline with 19%, and the sales in that unit is for this quarter, SEK 15 million. What I would like to say, in ending that, is that all business units are profitable, and even if ART Equipment is going down with 19%, most of that is due to our aim to upgrade products, to have regulatory approved products in all territories, to withdraw the products that is not profitable or are not really in a competitive situation. We've been working with the product mix. ART Equipment is a healthy, profitable business.
If we then go into and see what's happening within the different territories, that will be on page number four, please. If let's start from the left side, the Americas, the growth last quarter been quite good. It is 29% in local currency. In absolute numbers, it is SEK 52 million. The growth there is mainly coming from sales in North America, and it is a good mix between the products. I would like to say that the approval that we have seen for EmbryoScope+ is changing the positioning of Timelapse in U.S., and it is picking up in usage and also in interest, and of course, then in sales. EMEA, our largest territory, the sales was SEK 144 million and an organic growth of 7%.
It's an quite even sales situation between countries inside EMEA. I don't want to pick out any special countries, and I would like to say that 7% is between this 1%, 2%, up to 10% in different territories, and it's an even sales growth. Asia, and Asia for us, is from India to China, in that kind of region. Very good growth of 33%, and the growth in that unit is, or region, as we can see, is coming from more or less all equipment. What I would like to do a special comment on is the China activities when looking on the full year, that also this report is about. We started out with a difficult situation on sales growth.
It was actually negative, and we are currently back in a healthy position, where the complete region is growing with 33%, and China is standing for some of that, and within media, for instance. The market contribution then between the different units, before we go into that, are all of them are growing, except Japan Pacific. There, the market contribution is going down from SEK 24 million to SEK 22 million, and that's a result of the drop in sales of 13%. The reason for the drop in sales are only due to Timelapse, where we had large orders last year during the quarter, and we have not been able to have the same kind of large orders during this quarter.
Overall, we're in the year, good numbers, good growth, and a stable situation for all regions, and that we can see that early growth territories are back to good growth and also good market contribution. Please go to page five. From this year, we will have a new business unit, and that business unit will deal with genomics. Why I'm saying that is that during Q4, we did an agreement with Illumina, and it is a licensing and compensation agreement, where we will have the exclusive distribution and development and compensation rights for products within human IVF.
The products that we believe will, together with the market channels that we have within this field, and outstanding good products from Illumina, will help the clinics to actually perform better and increase the, let's say, the likelihood of having healthy babies. Part of that is what we can do with the current products, and for instance, how we can use Timelapse to help the clinics to predict or to better select the right embryo. It's the same with this side, where we are then having an opportunity to work together with the clinics and provide know-how, and of course, products within the genomics field. We have also, within the agreement with Illumina, started a development project under the hands of Vitrolife, where we will upgrade these products, and those products will then fit into the Illumina hardware equipment.
The territory initially that we have the sales and distribution rights for is America and EMEA, and it is optioned later on for Asia Pacific. The relationship between Illumina and Vitrolife is based upon an activity plan and also a commercial plan, and we did an upfront payment of $13 billion. What we will believe is that during the year, we will have an revenue growth on around 10% from this cooperation, and we will have an EBITDA increase of 3%-5%. We are taking over the business from the 1st of January this year, and we are in a plan together with Illumina, starting slowly within Q1 to do the supply and support to the users within these territories. By that, I would like to hand over to Mikael on page number six.
Thank you. Yes, as Thomas mentioned, we had a 12% sales growth in the Q4 in local currencies, and that's all organic, and that translates to 18% in SEK, taking into consideration the currency effects. Gross margin increased from 64% in the Q4 last year to 67%, and the increase comes primarily from increased sales and from currency effects. EBITDA was SEK 135 million, compared to SEK 103 million in the Q4 last year. Of this increase, about SEK 11 million comes from currency effects. Profit margin, measured in EBITDA, increased from 38% to 42%, and net debt is minus one in relation to EBITDA.
We continue to have a very strong balance sheet, and the idea of this cash position is to use it for valuating acquisitions. After the end of the period, the board proposed that a dividend should be paid of SEK 0.85, which equals an increase of 15% compared to last year and in accordance with the dividend policy of the company. Please change to page number seven. When it comes to the outlook, we continue to see a long-term market growth of 5%-10% in monetary terms, and as before, we see that it will be driven by a growing middle class, that patients wait without children. There's an increased acceptance of IVF in the world, and there's an increased use of technology that drives value for the industry.
We will focus on expansion of sales as before, and by strengthening our sales and distribution channels. We will also, as before, continue to focus on broadening our product offering. That will be done both by R&D activities and by broadening the offering by acquisition, such as, for example, Illumina, as Thomas mentioned before. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Okay, sir, there are no further question at this time. Please continue.
Okay. If there isn't any further questions at this time, I would like to thank you all for calling in at this meeting.
Hello, sir.
Yes, please.
Hello. Pardon for interruption. We have one question coming right now.
Great. Good. Good.
Okay. Hold a moment, sir. I'm just my colleague is going to get the first and last name.
Good.
Okay, sir.
Yes.
Your first question comes from the line of Arvid Necander. Your line is now open.
Yes, thank you for taking my question. I just had a quick question related to the expanded product development that you mentioned regarding the embryo transfer technology that you acquired in 2018. You say that you're working with a revised launch plan here, I was wondering if you could indicate anything sort of when you are predicting that this product will be launched with the new plan?
Thank you. Yes, when we mention about the product offering, you know, that's the product offering within all our product areas. If you are then just questioning and have a question regarding the catheters, yes, what we have done is that, you know, we're taking over the business. Our intention was to get the products initially for a launch by the current, let's say, production facilities. We're taking over the business and the registrations, we have been doing continuous, let's say, product development, and within that product development plan to make them more cost effective and also do some changes that we, that we believe will make the product better. We are then changing production facility, and with that, also do some product development projects.
The delay is mainly due to that we are trying to get the product into a status where we can launch it with good product or production opportunities later on. That means that there is a delay for our, let's say, initial launch of the product that we are informing about.
Right. You can't indicate anything on how long this delay would be? Do you have an estimate that you can communicate to us? You previously communicated that you intended to launch low volumes during the second half of 2018. Are we looking at?
Exactly.
One year delay or, what are we looking at?
I mean, you are guessing quite good. We were expecting that we should launch it, you know, when we acquired it at the beginning of last year, around this time, that we should launch it after 15, 18 months for some pinpointed markets. What we have done is that the product is a specialist catheter, and we have made, let's say, a conclusion from a clinical test because the products are FDA approved and also approved for sale within the CE territory. With that feedback, we decided to do some changes. What's the delay? I would like to say that it's probably around a year to 15 months, all depending upon the regulatory approval.
When we are changing the product from the current very small production facilities that they've been at, to a more standard procedure, we also need to upgrade the regulatory approvals. I'm vague regarding the time because it depends upon the regulatory approval process.
All right. Yeah. Thank you very much for that answer. That was everything for me.
Thank you.
Okay. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Okay, sir, we have another question coming. Hold on a moment while the operator is getting the name of the participant who's going to ask a question.
Yes.
Okay, sir, our next question comes from the line of Bas, Bastian Gries. Your line is now open.
Hello there. First, congratulations for your wonderful results. Just a quick question, have you already paid the $30 million upfront payment to Illumina, or will it be in 2019 that we should expect those numbers to fall through your accounts?
Sorry, could you repeat that question?
Yeah. You talked about the upfront payment of $30 million to Illumina. I was just wondering whether or not you've already paid it to Illumina, or will it be done in 2019?
Yes, the money has already been paid. It was paid during the Q4 .
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, once again, please press star and one if you wish to ask a question. Okay, sir, there are no further questions at this time.
Okay. If there isn't any further questions, then, thank you again for calling in, and, hopefully, we will hear each other when we are doing Q1. Thank you very much.
Okay, that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.