Good morning, and welcome to Vitrolife fourth quarter and full year report. Today is February 2nd, 2023. The speakers of today will be my colleague, CFO Patrik Tolf, and myself, Thomas Axelsson. Let's go into the presentation and next page number two. The headline for this presentation is Strong Profitable Growth for the quarter. What we will do is that we will quickly go through the numbers, and then we will go into more details by Patrik and myself. Regarding the quarter is that we had an increase of 66% in Swedish currency, and the sales was SEK 855 million. It was a growth of 11% in local currency. Later on, we will go more into those kind of details. The adjusted gross margin was 66.5%.
EBITDA, we made SEK 273 million, the margin was 31.9%. EBITDA per share, SEK 2.02. Operating cash flow, SEK 166 million. Since it is also the full year report, I would like to also reflect a little bit about the full year report, that is the sales was SEK 3.234 billion, that was a growth of 92%. In local currency, in organic growth, 10%. EBITDA margin is 32.5% and generating a good operating cash flow of SEK 636 million. Okay, that was some number crunching. Let's go into more about the details regarding what we have done the last quarter and also during the year. Please go to next page, number three.
I will start with the sales and growth by regions and then go into the different business areas. Let's start from the right side and go to the left, from the East to the West on the geographical side. We increased, as I said, earlier on with 66% in Swedish currency. In local currency, it was 48% and an organic growth of 11%. That means that the acquired growth in the quarter was 37%. Japan and Pacific, organic growth 29%. We are very pleased with that growth. It is coming from mostly, you know, the old Vitrolife, what is the business areas consumables and technologies. We are performing quite well.
I would like to say that with an organic growth of 29%, and it is due to more acceptance of our time-lapse equipment, so it's getting more and more in that territory to become standard in some countries. Reimbursement system and the well-positioning position we have in Japan has helped us in that region. Let's go into Asia. Asia is a mixed picture. You probably know, if you have been listening into this the last couple of years, that we have had a very strong position in China, and we are continuing having a strong position in China. However, China last quarter, it started well in October, and then it went down due to COVID-19, and I don't want to go into those things because you all know about the COVID-19 and the situation that's been in China.
For us to have a situation where we have an organic growth in that region, which is then China, and if we go into the Southeast Asia of 21% is remarkable, I would like to say that. And that is also taking into consideration that we have divested some of the business, and that is, you know, within the genetic side, where everything right now regarding different markets and products and everything has been to come into where we have the strongest positioning and where we can have a profitable growth. That was the situation of Asia then. Go into the EMEA. There we had an organic growth of 2%, and the pro forma, which is maybe good to also look into, was 6%.
That region, a little bit up, a little bit down, depending upon the different countries. We are getting questions regarding the geopolitical situation and that is impacting. It's difficult to say, but yes, you know, in some countries we can see a decline of IVF cycles, and that is from the information that we are getting from the customers. Otherwise, it is a stable market. Let's go into then Americas organic growth of 8% in local currencies then within the region then. If we see this chart, you could easily say that, if we go from the East to West, the more West we are coming, the stronger position we have in the market share on Genetic Services.
If you go from West to East, it is a positioning of the company and what we are selling, which is more the, let's say, the situation of consumables and technologies. Overall, regarding sales and what's happening with the customers is the consolidation is ongoing. It is also that, due to that, you know, it is more a focus on having cross-sales and building up the structure between the regions, and that's important for going forward with that. Okay. Let's then go into how it looks like on page number four and the consumables business area. Sales of SEK 349 million . As mentioned before, very good growth in Japan, Pacific and Asia. Not so good growth. It's still a growth in EMEA and a little bit decline in Americas.
Looking into the product areas, it is a stable situation for our media growth. There are some up and downs on the genomics, which means those kits that we are selling for the clinics or laboratories that wanna do their genetic testing themselves, and a steady underlying growth of the disposable devices there. If we leave that one and go into the technologies business areas on page number five. Good growth of 36%, 27% in local currencies. I wanna address the thing that it is fluctuations between the quarters. We have a good quarter, and we can have a little quarter that is not so good. Overall, it is an extremely good growth, and the trend is looking good for these products. It's no changes.
It is the situation of workflow, where we can see more and more acceptance on workflow on the, let's say, Americas, and it's already accepted in EMEA for those things. Technologies, pleased to say that the strategy and ambition that we have had for years, and it takes time to do it, is to get a more balanced revenue projection by selling hardware, software, disposables, and maintenance. Just the situation of having more stable revenue from software and disposables are helping the areas with the projections of future sales. Go into page number six, Genetic Services. Genetic Services is not Igenomix. It is part of the Igenomix, but, you know, we have built a new company during the year, so we are Vitrolife and the Vitrolife Group then.
Within that field, the service side that we have that are dealing with genetic testing for customers is the business area, Genetic Services. During the year and during the quarter, we have done changes to focus on profitable growth. You know, it is a clear path going forward. It is the focus on fertility idea then. It's been a good, outstanding work from our colleagues within Genetic Services and for the rest of the team to adjust the businesses to each other then. We can have one way of entering into the customers, and one way means that one way is to listen in to what the customer wants, and if they want products, services, or a mix. That will be decided by the customers.
It is a growth of 14%, and it is -2% in local currencies. Overall, you know, the U.S. market stands for more than 50% of the total sales in Genetic Services then. The situation is that we have grown in number of testing being performed, but we have not grown in sales in U.S. due to the price pressure, or you can say that the reduced pricing situations on long-term agreements that was done earlier. That is being changed. I mean, we wanna deal with customers, and we would like to have a good relationship with customers where we together can see that we are adding value to each other then. By that, let's go into more of the side where Patrik will guide us through. Please go to number seven and financial highlights. Please, Patrik.
Thank you. We will then start with looking on the net sales. As you recall then from two months here, the net sales is for the fourth quarter then SEK 855 million. Recall also then when you come to the comparison for the last year, that we had one month during the fourth quarter 2021 with Genetic Services. That's also why, when you talk on the pro forma basis, we'll also then show that performance development. 37% acquired growth during the fourth quarter, 66% in total growth, and the currency impact of 18% during the fourth quarter. If we then look on the impact then on growth in local currencies, that was 11% on the total sales.
As we also know that during last year, there was a not so large, but anyhow, a sales of COVID-19 tests. That means that when we look on the pro forma, we take exclude then the COVID-19 tests. Also now we have divested then the businesses in China. If we exclude that, we also then have a pro forma growth of 9%. The sales of COVID tests during the fourth quarter 2022 was very low in comparison with 2021. If we look on the gross income, that is an improve then to SEK 463 million, and that gives us then a margin of 54.2%.
If we add back then the adjusted then for the acquisition-related tangible assets, that gives us an adjusted margin of 56.5%. Moving on to EBITDA, that ended up with SEK 273 million, giving us then a margin of 31.9% for the quarter. The pro forma was 27.8%. On the impact end, when it comes to the EBITDA, we had a positive impact on EBITDA with SEK 32 million on that side. If we then look onto EBITDA per share, that continued to increase, a 196% increase to an EBITDA per share to SEK 202.
Moving on to the next slide, where we look more into operational expenses, that in comparison with the pro forma of SEK 281 increased with 5% to SEK 295. We have a couple of impacts that has increased the expenses and a couple of things that has decreased the expenses. Let me talk through that one. The sales and marketing activities has increased, we are more active on the joint marketing activities. We have been visiting various kind of fairs like ASRM and so forth, into which we are working on implementation a CRM system and more joint activities for the combined now global sales and marketing team that we have.
We have also then a couple of group-related products that is also then related to integration, like IT-related projects, but also focus on leadership programs that we have been doing during the fall here. Generally also, we have increased a bit on the staff and personal costs during the fourth quarter, that is in and also given that the presence are globally when it comes to sales marketing team and also when it comes to the group function, we can see a negative impact then on the increase on the expensive side there as well.
On the decreased expenses, you see that the R&D cost goes down, and the majority of that is related to the agreement that we now have with our former Chief Scientific Officer for Genetic Services, Carlos Simón, who will then basically have set up a foundation, and we can then focus the scientific research through an agreement with that foundation. And the residual part then of the R&D within Genetic Services and Vitrolife Group are then focusing on applied product development. That is a very good setup that we have going forward, and that has impacted then the R&D focus on our side, which is now continuously then focused on applied product development. If we then move on to the next side, where we will summarize then the key financials.
Keep in mind, as I said initially, that the Q4 2021 contained one month of sales for Genetic Services, and also then that the pro forma numbers still included COVID-19 impact for 2021. Again, we have an improvement then when it comes to sales. Cost margins are approximately on the same level on the quarterly basis. EBITDA margin 32%, significantly up then compared to the pro forma on that side. As Thomas mentioned here initially on the net debt to EBITDA, that is now down from about 3%, as it was a year ago, down to 1.5%. That gives us, of course, additional flexibility going forward, given that we have continued to generate positive cash flow.
Also worth mentioning, when it comes to the impact in the net income is that we have had a relatively high tax cost during the fourth quarter. We have basically then managed a couple of adjustments then related to the acquisitions, have taken a conservative approach to the things that was related to the acquisition. That was an extraordinarily high tax rate during the fourth quarter on that side. Moving on to the next slide number 10, the management comments. To a bit summarize, well, what we have done during the last year and during the fourth quarter, we have then, as Thomas initially started with here, we have done significant changes. We have created Vitrolife Group.
We have now, as we have this from October 1st, we have one global sales and marketing team. We have focused on fertility. We have then divested activities that are not related to fertility, and we have now a strong focus on things like operational excellence, commercial excellence. We have done a lot of activities to continue to strengthen Vitrolife Group. Also important to mention is things like values, and we have been working very closely with the legacy Vitrolife, legacy Igenomix team to combine the set of values that we have, and we have now a combined set of values for the Vitrolife Group, which is working very, very well on that side as well. Time-lapse, also important to mention, becoming more and more standard of care in several markets.
We will continue to explore the possibilities not only of using time-lapse as an embryo selection tool, but also how to improve the workflow within several clinics. We have a lot of ongoing discussions on that one in various markets in the world. We continue to have strong, profitable growth. We have managed to improve particularly the margins in Genetic Services. It was a relatively tough start during 2022, and we have now moved up and are above those targets that we have initially talked about giving an EBITDA margin of 25%. We are well above that during the fourth quarter. Also now as the Vitrolife Group, we are a much better balanced company between both regions and business areas.
On that side, with a third in Americas, approximately a third in EMEA, Asia with a third. We are much better balanced, and we will continue to build on the strength that we have because Genetic Services have a stronger position when it comes to Americas and legacy Vitrolife consumables technologies have a stronger position in some of the markets in Asia. We will continue to build on our strengths and work on the commercial excellence with combined customers going forward. Thomas, you do the next slide.
Okay, we are on page number 11. It is a great pleasure that we were all informed yesterday that the board has appointed Bronwyn Brophy as the new CEO. She will join the company at the latest of August 1st. We are all looking forward and thank you the board for a good new CEO. Up until that time, the Chairman of the Board, current Chairman of the Board, Jón Sigurdsson, will go in as an Interim CEO from April 1st. When that happens, current Board Member, Henrik Blomquist, he will step up and be Chairman of the Board from April 1st up until the annual general meeting that is on April 27th. I, Thomas Axelsson then, will leave my position on March 31st. Thank you very much.
I will hand over to the operator for Q&A session.
Thank you very much. As a reminder to ask a question please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question please press star two. The first question comes from the line of Suzanna Queckbörner calling from SHB. Please go ahead.
Hello, Suzanna Queckbörner here from Handelsbanken. Thank you for taking my questions. I have four, maybe I can take them one by one. First question, the pent-up demand in China, can you provide a magnitude to this? Also, what's your overall capacity and access to components? Can you match the demand?
No one knows the pent-up demand. I mean, we are having discussions with customers, and the customers predict a pent-up demand because, you know, they have not been able to have customers traveling through some of the provinces, and that's part of the situation in China, where customers, their customers are going to, mainly, you know, if they can travel through the provinces. There's a pent-up demand. Also that, during the Q4 and you know, well, what happened at the end of Q4 and also the beginning of this year has been a situation where it's been more or less locked down and there has been clinics that have been shutting down totally. Others has been working under a lot of constraints.
Yes, we believe a pent-up demand. However, well, how much it will be, I don't wanna do any projections, but we are planning for it, we will continue our ambition that we have had in China, that is to have a high service level. Then what is critical when you are, you know, dealing with a pent-up demand, it is for the clinics to have access to, from our side, for instance, the culture media, all of the media business that is necessary for them to do a cycle or actually to do a transfer then of those. Yes, we are planning for it. It can be a risk that if we are too optimistic, it can be scrapped. I think we have a quite good control over that. Yes.
Great. Okay. On the Genetic Services in the U.S.A, you're feeling the price pressure on the PGT-A tests. Perhaps you could expand on the measures that you're taking to counteract this. Specifically in the report you mentioned selective approach towards customer contracts.
Yes. Yes. There are a couple of things that we have started. You know, first thing is to work with what Patrik talked about, operational excellence. You know, when we are working with Genetic Services, the things that the team has done during the year to increase the profitability from Genetic Services has been extremely good. In that situation, you know, we are then working with changes on the laboratory structure, how we work inside the laboratory structures, and also the customer side. What customer and where do we wanna, you know, have, what are the balance between growth and profitability? There's been a clear growth focus from the earlier owners. Our focus is to have a profitable growth business.
Some of the tenders where the PGT-A, I'm only talking about PGT-A, where the pricing are not what we see sustainable then, we are going in and having a discussion with the customers. We will stay in this field. We will have better, let's say, less COGS, better profitability, so we will be able to change this business to a more profitable business. We are then experiencing that the same things is being done by the competition. There are companies that has come out with public information, like in Q4, that they will leave this field because they see that the prices has dropped too much and that it is not their focus business. That's where we are in this, the PGT-A. It's only related to the PGT-A larger clinics in U.S.
Okay. As a follow-up on that, given the geopolitical situation, which I suppose you're seeing affect primarily EMEA, maybe to some extent also in the Americas, can you give us a share of the private and public clinics that you're supplying globally?
Globally, 85, 15 around. 85 public, 15. You know, I want to add one thing into that. Public is how we do definition within a well-defined reimbursement system by the state, you know. There are reimbursement system that is not traditional reimbursement system, but we have a growth of insurance-supported IVF, and that is being done in U.S. through insurance companies, through, you know, the companies themselves that is adding that on to as a, as a employee benefit. The, let us say the third-party payments are increasing. If we are increasing that trend in some markets, I would like to say that we have probably come to a situation 80/20, where 20 then is paid through that one.
Mm-hmm. Then on top of that, you've spoken in the report about favorable reimbursement. Can you mention where you're seeing large changes sort of beyond Japan?
That's only qualified guesses. I don't think it's going to be any changes within Europe as it looks like right now. Where I think that might some changes will come are in the territories where they are, where the public side will come in, you know. There's been a discussion regarding China. You know, they started to do the test regarding some reimbursement systems when you were in Beijing. Unfortunately, that happened at the same time as the COVID came, so they have not been able to do any conclusions if it works or not. They will continue that, let's call it trial, a trial, and if that works out well, a professional guess is that China needs to support their demographic problem.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Ulrik Trattner calling from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you very much. I have a ton of questions. Let's start off with consumables and two questions there regarding both the product mix, given that you have media, your Illumina distribution test kits, and your disposable products. You talked briefly about this during the presentation, but has there been sort of a more tilted towards the Illumina test kits that have affected sort of the margin profile? In addition to that, if you can just talk a little bit about the investment in production during the quarter, what that entails and when that will be fully operational. That would be my first question, please.
Okay. Hi, Ulrik. Let's start with your last question regarding investments. I do my own guesses what you're basing your questions from, and it is from the gross margin situation. The investments, you know, is also impacting the gross margin that is on the balance sheet. What we have done this quarter, and we started to do this actually at the end of quarter one last year when we saw an increasing demand, and we needed to do some investments. Investment has been done from that time up until Q3 on machinery and those things. From Q3 forward, it has been to recruit people and train them and get them into production.
The scale-up on the extra resources, due to manpower and those activities, is not yet seen in sales. It's only, you know, extra cost on that side. Another side on that is that we have, during the COVID, been forced, and I'm glad that we have been forced to do it, and that is to challenge our supply chain. In the supply chain, whom are we going to be supplied with is to change part of the supply chain. When you do that, you are also adding on expenses for people doing overtime, people working with regulatory extra, people doing the everything, the QA to get those new suppliers into the system and changing part of the operational procedure inside the manufacturing plant.
That is not anything we take on the balance sheet that has been put into the P&L then. The gross margin drop this quarter is rare in such a way that is coming from the consumables. Product mix then to affect that is that, with more disposable devices in some territories, you know, disposable devices has less margin than what the media has. To give some reflections on it, the very good growth of consumables that we have in Asia, for instance, are not coming only from media, you know, because media is a product where you need it fresh. The earlier question that came from Handelsbanken regarding, you know, the pent-up demand or not pent-up demand is it's more disposable devices being there.
That is due to that they today have confidence in the markets. We're talking about Thailand, we're talking about all of those markets with China that they're starting to perform more and more cycles. It's getting back to normal situation. Both the end users, clinics themselves, and also the distributors are filling up their stock level. The vice versa has happened in some of our distributor markets in EMEA, where they are sure upon their supply on the disposable devices. You know, then they don't need to continue to build up a security, extra security stock level within the system.
Great. Thank you. Just a follow-up question on that then. I know you don't really want to talk about China and pent-up demand, but I'm guessing it will be quite messy to decipher here in the quarter whether you have taken market share from the production issues regarding Cook or if you're expecting to see further sort of positive effects from that going into Q1, given that it is in this month that they are closing down production.
I don't have any more information that you have, you know, that they're closing down the production somehow. You know, that the customers that has been using their products, they are then questioning themselves whom they should buy from. With a producer less out to the market, of course it gives an opportunity for hopefully taking some more accounts. Let's see how it will work out.
Okay, great. Just on China, do you have a feeling from the current right now, how are the IVF clinics reopening? We all see the high number of COVID cases. What's your impression right now on how China is developing?
We had a meeting yesterday because we assumed that that should be a question from you and your colleagues. We try to be updated with the latest information. Just one statement, you know, it's difficult to transform this into number of cycles, but there has been large clinics, and we talk about large clinics, you know, that are performing more than many countries are doing totally in Europe. They have had a situation where they have been, you know, running at the staff level at the worst week with about 20%, so 80% was called in sick. Currently, it is vice versa, that 80% are back and 20% is called out sick. They believe that that's going to be that everyone will be back quite soon because they have had COVID.
I don't know if that is a general situation for the market, but that is what my colleagues are getting from the close contacts with the clinics. You know, also the new year is over, so it is many things that sounds like there will be a trend upwards, if I put it that way.
Okay. Year of the rabbit, potentially a good year then. If I were to move on to the technologies segment, what I'm hearing is rather positive signals from the U.S. market, you mentioned this on workflow efficiency, this seems like quite a new sales approach from you guys, moving this from an embryo selection tool to a workflow efficiency tool. Is this trend and when did you start to do this type of sales promotion? Is this the first signs we're seeing about improved adoption of time-lapse in the U.S.? The second question on technologies and time-lapse is that how much of your revenues are software disposable and services?
Okay. workflow is not a new thing. You know, we have been working with that for many years. Let's say the first acceptance on those things has come from clinic chains that want to have a standardized situation and that they are not only favoring genetic testing. I mean, it's been a mix between Scandinavian, U.K., and Australian side, and we have, you know, pushed that for some time and getting more confidence regarding it. The situation right now is that we can provide, you know, the situation if the customers like genetic testing or they would like to have, if say morphology for the selection or they would like to have a better workflow and then decide what kind of selection tool that they will have.
The trend in U.S. is, we have jumped on that one. Let's put it that way. It's coming from the changes under COVID. We started before, the customers realized that the changes over COVID has caused a difficulty for them to get skilled staff and with different tools they can reduce the number of embryologists and as part of the workflow. That's more about the business case for them strictly on how to manage the laboratory, not so much about the selection.
Great. Thank you very much. A few more questions from my end, and then we'll, I'll stop torturing you guys. Genetic Services, I think there is a balance here between growth and margin. You mentioned that a few players have left the market. We have seen Progenity leave the market. My impression is that these are low-margin contracts. Are these something that you're going after, or is it purely a focus on profitable growth? In addition to that, if you can give us some teaser on the current margin trend for Genetic Services in regards to your long-term targets for that business area, that would be very helpful.
Okay. The last question there is easy to, because we communicated this over this year when we have started to do a lot of actions within the team to improve the situation by, you know, closing oncology, getting out of the GPDx business that is not here, and doing all of those things, is that we have said, you know, that we should, you know, increase the EBITDA level for the business, you know, up to +25%, and we are higher than that, I can tell you that. Then we said that within next year, I mean, this is the year, 2023, that we should reach a number at least of 30% as the target. We are well on that track.
We are well on that track. Going into the situation about profitable growth, you are getting profitable growth if you can add something, because if you don't add something, why should a customer pay something extra? It is a competitive market. As you say, you know, there's been situations where it's only been about price. If that's the situation, then we could deal with those, but then they will not get the same kind of service. You know, the situation about doing a test itself and the COGS for the chemicals are quite equal between all the players. The question is, you know, what are you adding on that the customer can get, and what are they willing to pay for it? If they want to have support for genetic counseling, we will charge for it.
If they don't want to have it, then we can do a test, but they will then, you know, they can't come and ask for anything more without having an extra charge for that. It is what it is in all other business. You will pay what you will pay what you're expecting to get. That's the biggest change within the, you know, Genetic Services that to differentiate our offering with the correct pricing.
Since you're talking about differentiating yourself and adding additional value, could you give us some more information on the EMBRACE product?
EMBRACE product, it is in the phase right now where we are doing user studies. It is approved, I mean, everything, but we are doing user studies, but we have not yet done an official launch.
When do you expect that launch to happen?
I don't want to give a clear number upon it, but it is within our plans to do it. Yeah, let's put it that way. Yeah. If I give you a number, you will then write it down, and then it's going to be like a holy number. It's better to say that we are working on it. We will come back. Yeah.
Great. That was all questions from my end. Since this is your last earning call, Thomas, thank you very much and wish you all the well in the future.
Thank you. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Patrik Ling calling from DNB. Please go ahead.
Thank you, guys. I have a few additional questions. Firstly, when it comes to China, that we've touched upon a few times when it comes to reimbursement there, I mean, are you picking up any signals that the government or the leaders in China are looking at more issues rather than only reimbursement for IVF. Because when you look at why people do not, you know, produce children, I mean, infertility is one issue, but, you know, financial issues and the fact that it's expensive to have children is also weighing in there. Given that we saw the population in China decreasing now for the first time in many, many years in 2022, are you picking up any signals that they are doing anything above and beyond just thinking about reimbursement for IVF?
Patrik, we are all following the discussions and what goes on there. I have no more insights than what you have. We all know that this is a problem related to inconvenience of having more children in a society where if you are more than middle class, that you have to work a lot, and it is causing professional problems to have children there. That's something that we all know about, and how they will solve it, well, that's difficult to project, Patrik.
Okay, great. The only thing that you have picked up is really that they will restart reimbursement experiment as of now.
Correct. Correct.
Great. I actually also had just a few housekeeping questions. When it comes to R&D, Patrik mentioned that you had changed the setup when it comes to some of the R&D now being done by external sources. Should we expect that the level that we're seeing now in Q4 is more representative going forward than what we've seen during the rest of 2022?
R&D is important. You know, when we have right now done some prioritizations between projects, you are closing some that has been ongoing, and then you are starting up some others. The real cost for R&D, and you're well aware of that, is that when you have something where you go out and do clinical testing, or you're coming into a situation where you need external input that you have to pay for. And we have said before that, you know, what is a reasonable level for a company like us to have a long-term R&D cost? Somewhere between 5% and 7% long term. That's where we should be and what we can afford to do.
Just to add to that one, I mean, the setup that we now have gives us, of course, a great benefit and opportunity here, where we could then work more focused then when it comes to the scientific side with various kind of agreements, and then also on our end, then focusing on the more applied development. This is a good structure that we now have implemented on that front.
Okay, great. Great. I get it. Also have a question on the financial map. You had some FX impact there.
Mm-hmm. Correct.
Could you just highlight a little bit what we should expect in the next coming two quarters, assuming that currencies remain at approximately the current level?
Yeah. Well, if the currencies, I mean, the underlying thing is that we have internal loans that basically gets revalued and in U.S. dollar. It's a euro dollar impact that you have seen during the fourth quarter on that side. Given that the currencies will be as they are today, there will be no impact on that side. But it's a euro dollar exposure that we have in the loan, internal loan structure that we have on that side.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, great. Great. Then lastly, tax rate-wise, you mentioned that there was some one-offs, this quarter pushing it up, upwards. Is it reasonable to assume, similar tax rate as before going forward, or should we assume something else?
The question is what do you then refer to as before, on that side?
Well, you know, 24%, 25%, something like that.
Yes, something like that. I mean, as you know, I mean, the tax rate has been, call it a bit volatile during the quarter. If you look on that side now also with the acquisition on the new Vitrolife Group, we have taken a couple of actions and what you see in the numbers during the fourth quarter and of course for full year is a conservative approach on a couple of actions that we have done. You should expect a lower tax rate going forward in the neighborhood that you talked about.
Okay, great. Great. Those were actually all questions from my end as well. Also for me, good luck with everything you plan to do now, Thomas, after you step down as the CEO.
Thank you.
Thank you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Operator, are there any more Q&A, or can we end this way?
We currently have no question coming through. As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one now.
Okay. But it is.
There are no-
It's 10:15 right now, so let's only have one more question.
There are no further questions.
Okay.
I will hand you back to conclude today's conference.
That's great.
Yeah.
That's great. Thank you very much. In that case, if someone has been, you know, taking the time to call in and listen to us for 50 minutes, we appreciate that. Thank you very much for this session, and bye from Patrik and myself.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Thank you for joining today's call.