Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Zumtobel Group's conference call on the full year and Q4 results for the 2023-2024 financial year. With me on the call are Alfred Felder, our CEO, and Thomas Erath, our CFO. Alfred will walk you through the highlights of the year, while Thomas will discuss the financial performance. After the presentation, both gentlemen will be available to answer your questions. In case you have not a copy of the report and the presentation, you may find both documents for download on our webpage. After the call, a playback of this conference call will be available on our webpage as well. With this, I hand over to Alfred.
Thank you, Eric. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you again for your interest and for your participation in today's call on our full-year's results. The financial year 2023-2024 was definitely not an easy one. The market and the general economic environment remained very difficult, and the climate also reflected this in our numbers. As you can see here on the page, group revenues fell by 6.8% to EUR 1.127 billion, primarily due to the volume decline and the unfavorable exchange rate effects. The revenue on the lighting segment declined only by 1.5% to EUR 889 million, but lower sales volumes and negative foreign exchange effects were largely offset by the efficient price management, what we did, and the volume growth in higher margin markets. Problem child last year was the component segment with a recorded reduction of 18.5% to revenues of EUR 299 million.
The main underlying factors here were the weaker demand that followed previous stock buildups, so by customers, and the continued weak momentum in the market. Despite this quite significant decline in revenues, we were able to improve our adjusted EBIT gross margin to 35.8% due to the increase in revenues in high margin regions and the reduction of the material ratio. However, the revenue decline and personnel cost increase resulting from the collective agreements were only offset in part by the improvements. As a result, the adjusted EBIT fell from EUR 84.3 million to EUR 57.3 million in 2023-2024, and that resulted then in an adjusted EBIT margin of 5.1%.
Net profit, as you can see here, totaled EUR 24.7, and in accordance with our dividend policy, which provides for the distribution of 30%-50% of the net profit to our shareholders, the management board will propose to the next annual general meeting a dividend of EUR 0.25 per share should be distributed for the 2023-2024 financial year, which now presents then a payout ratio of around 44% of the net profit. Despite these challenges, we used the year to further develop our company strategically and position ourselves for the future, and we worked intensively on optimizing our internal processes, strengthening our market position, and driving forward innovative projects.
What you see here just on an overview, what really symbolizes the complete portfolio what we have on the upper left stadium in Italy, where basically we did complete lighting as a turnkey project with our high-end product Altis. Sarajevo, the city here, this request was to really achieve the maximum energy saving across the outdoor lighting, and here it's a clear trend that all the luminaires need to be connected, tuned, and that's another one what with our leading portfolio, the Isaro Pro with connected IoT, we could realize. Volvo, on the other hand, so in the actual segment, our biggest one had a key requirement on the best quality of light, the so-called human-centric light.
We worked here also together with the University of Ghent to provide the best light, and also here we had then realized a complete solution satisfying the customer, and the customer will roll this out now into other factories. An example of a refurbishment, The New York Times office, basically a product what we installed already 15, 18 years ago, the T5 fluorescent luminaires with 15,000 units, and here basically we only replaced the luminaire, the fluorescent tube with LED tailor-made light kits, and it's an extremely innovative approach because obviously the refurbishment resulted in, on one hand, on 50% reduction of energy consumption, but on the other hand, allowed the preservation of 85% of the original luminaires.
A very prestigious project was the Tower 4 in Frankfurt, where we did Tower 1 and Tower 4 with partly tailor-made applications, including a 2,000-meter vertical line facade luminaire, what basically is one of the entrances in one of the towers. Ospedale Galeazzi, an example of our light management system, that was a project conducted by our daughter Tridonic together with a competitive luminaire maker, where here we installed 210 sceneCOM kits with 16,000 Tridonic LED drivers into this hospital. Also, the biggest, let me say, light management system installed so far in a hospital in Italy. Last but not least, last time we had our Q3 call out of the Light + Building, it was exactly the week of l Light + Building, . Now I can summarize this was a very successful event for us with more than 30,000 leads what we have generated.
We also here showed next to all the innovation on product, luminaire, and components level, first time our IoT product brand Keyture, what basically underscores Zumtobel Group's ecosystem and the partnership what we also started at Light + Building with Siemens and Enlighted. Let me here briefly explain on the next two slides what does this mean for us. You see it here on this picture that we are moving up in the value chain towards the three key pillars in smart building.
So what we have already with our smart energy systems in our portfolio, both, let me say, on central battery driven and single battery driven, we have the smart lighting with the light management system, and especially now with Keyture here what we have together with Enlighted, first time the wireless system what more or less is enabling us to drive installation of existing buildings where obviously people do not like to do a lot of refurbishment and use the wireless system.
On the next page, you see it here on the value chain, you know, Tridonic, our provider of innovative LED board solutions plus the drivers plus the enabling sensor technologies, our strong two brands, Zumtobel and Thorn, where Thorn also has the outdoor arm, and then with Keyture , the partnership with Siemens and Enlighted entering now closer to the ecosystem of smart buildings with the different solutions what we are able to offer. As you remember, on the next page, last year we talked about the ban of fluorescent tubes in the EU, banned since September 23, and the new directive is already on the horizon, which has been updated and adopted now in 2024 and must be converted into national law later by 2026, and that includes also mandatory lighting control for buildings.
So that means by the end of 2027, buildings with an energy consumption of more than 250 kW for heating, cooling, and ventilation must be equipped with an automated lighting control system, which obviously is of good use for us having those in the portfolio. With our luminaires, our automated wireless lighting system, the corresponding sensors, we can make then the appropriate contribution to the customers here, measuring the maximum possible reduction, and I think one of the key features what we have with Keyture , reduction obviously of the global warming impact of lighting, providing the information to the customers on data and highlighting then directly on dashboards the possible reductions of energy. This saves our customer energy, reduces the CO2 emission, and in combination obviously with our already extremely efficient luminaires, a complete picture of this whole building system.
We are very motivated to move into this more aggressively and tackling this kind of market segment. With that, I would like to hand over to Thomas. He will give you now a deeper insight on the Q4 results and the results of the entire fiscal year.
Thank you, Alfred. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome from my side. Let me start with the lighting segment. Revenues in the lighting segment amounted to EUR 226 million and were on previous year's level. The decline in sales volume was offset by efficient price management and increased sales in high-margin countries. Higher sales in high-margin countries couldn't offset the increases in fixed costs, though. Therefore, Adjusted EBIT in the lighting segment decreased from EUR 16.2 million to EUR 13.5 million. As a result, our Adjusted EBIT margin decreased from 7.2% to 6%. Let's move to the component segment. The component segment lost 12.2% in revenues and recorded sales of EUR 76.8 million in the fourth quarter. The key factors were limited demand as a result of still high customer inventory and low momentum with customers in general. Also, unfavorable FX effects and price measures impacted the result.
Adjusted EBIT in the component segment fell from EUR 7.6 million to EUR 2.8 million in the quarter. The decline reflected the above-mentioned drop in sales and price pressure. Adjusted EBIT margin declined to 3.7%. Slide 10 shows the overall result for the group. Our top line declined by 3.4% to EUR 287 million in the fourth quarter, mainly driven by the low momentum in the component segment. The decline in revenues had a negative impact on our result. As a consequence, our adjusted EBIT decreased from EUR 16.3 million to EUR 11.4 million . The adjusted EBIT margin reached 4%. Let's go to slide 11. Let me explain the main building blocks of our adjusted EBIT. Let's start with prior years. Adjusted EBIT of EUR 84.3 million.
As already mentioned, our negative volume development, especially due to the low demand from customers in the component segment, had a negative effect of EUR 47.4 million. Looking at our COGS, an efficient price management and the shift in sales to high-margin countries in combination with lower raw material and transport costs, as well as less obsolescence, had a positive effect of EUR 30.5 million. Our personnel expenses due to salary increases as a result of merit rounds had a negative impact of EUR 10.1 million on our result. Based on these factors, our adjusted EBIT declined to EUR 57.3 million. Slide 12 provides you with information on our income statement. As I previously indicated, our adjusted EBIT reached EUR 57.3 million. Special effects stood at -EUR 7.8 million, including EUR 7.4 million for personnel expenses, EUR 0.2 million for depreciation, and EUR 0.1 million for other expenses.
After the deduction of these special items, our EBIT stood at EUR 49.5 million. Our financial result amounted to minus EUR 14.6 million. Our net financing costs increased to EUR 11.1 million, mainly due to higher interest for current loans and finance leases. Other financial income and expenses amounted to minus EUR 3.5 million and included the interest expense for pension obligations, as well as effects from exchange rate changes and hedging valuation. After the deduction of income taxes, our net profit for the year 2023-2024 amounted to EUR 24.7 million. As a consequence, earnings per share stood at EUR 0.57. Let's now move to slide 13. Cash flow. Cash flow from operating results fell year-on-year from EUR 140.2 million to EUR 105.8 million, mainly due to decline in revenues. The changes in working capital improved significantly compared to last year.
Total cash flow from operating activities stood at EUR 102.3 million. Cash flow from investing activities totaled EUR 48.5 million compared to the EUR 54 million in the previous year. In addition to investments in property, plant and equipment disposition, also includes cash outflows of EUR 8.8 million for capitalized development costs. As a result, free cash flow increased to EUR 53.8 million in the reporting period compared to EUR 52.3 million the previous year. Let me finish with slide 14 and some comments on our balance sheet. Our balance sheet structure remained stable and strong. The equity ratio slightly increased to 43.1%, net debt decreased to EUR 77.1 million, and the debt coverage ratio is at very healthy 0.73. With this, I hand back to Alfred.
Thank you, Thomas. On slide 15, you see the latest market outlook from Euroconstruct from June 2024. To begin with, we anticipate a further decline in the overall construction activities this year, so the entire fiscal year for us and the entire calendar year. That's mainly driven by a combination of the economic factors in the different markets and the adjustments. But however, we remain more optimistic for 2025, where here, especially the renewed growth across the sector will be a little bit of a driving force. Looking into non-residential construction, the prospect has been once more revised down for 2024, and the market conditions have been challenging, leading to a more conservative outlook for this fiscal year. Especially when it comes to the new build, it's projected to decline again in several countries in 2024.
The renovation, on the other hand, and the maintenance activities are expected to grow, compensating this partly what we lose in the new contract, but driven also by the upgrade of the existing infrastructure due to the legal requirements and the new energy efficiency requirements. This shifts the present opportunities to us to capitalize on the growing demand for renovation and maintenance services. If you look in 2025 on this graph, we expect growth across all the sectors driven by improving economic indicators and increased investment infrastructure. But however, it's important to note that this new storage building sector, which has been booming really in the recent years where we benefited quite significantly, is expected to return more to normal levels. Similarly, the growth in new industrial buildings is projected to be more modest.
In summary, while we are facing a challenging year ahead, the outlook for 2025 is promising with anticipated growth in most of our lighting application sectors. Our strategic focus will be on leveraging opportunities in remuneration and maintenance and positioning ourselves to capitalize on the recovery of this non-residential construction. With that, let me finish on our outlook for the 2024-2025 financial year. Considering now this latest data on the Euroconstruct, our market intelligence insight, the situation geopolitically and economically, we have to say everything remains volatile. But considering the sector's current outlook, we must account for several critical factors. Again, of course, we said it already, the wars, now in Ukraine, Near East, the fluctuation in the energy, raw materials, and transport prices, and again, the rising personnel costs, what we had to absorb starting now in May.
And these factors will obviously significantly impact the global economy and consequently also the success of our group. In light of this complexity, we do expect for 2024-2025 financial year, a revenue growth, which is at least slightly above the prior year level. Our Adjusted EBIT margin, meaning excluding special effects, is expected to range from 3%-6%, while the CapEx spending is expected to be around EUR 60 million because we want to continue to do our digital transformation and not basically pulling back also on product innovation. With that, thank you so much for your attention. Now, Thomas and I will be more than happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you are using speaker equipment, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone with a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Markus Remis from Raiffeisen Bank International. Please go ahead. Mr. Remis, your line is open.
Oh, sorry. Sorry for cutting down. Move myself. Yeah, good morning, gent. First question relates to the top line guidance, and I'd be curious to get more granularity on the composition of this moderate revenue growth in terms of pricing and volume trends that you've faced in. And maybe it would be helpful, of course, to get also a sense on the product basis or segment basis. It will be the first one.
Yeah, thank you, Markus, for this question. So obviously, we do see a slight recovery on the components business compared to last year. The inventory level at the customers has been depleted, but we see, on the other hand, since a couple of months now, the old behavior is coming back with a lot of competition on the price erosion. So that means we expect a growth, but only a slight growth, taking into account the prices. On the lighting brand side, currently, we are running stable. We are not able anymore to increase the prices like we did last year to pass this on the higher cost of wages to the customers. All the indicators, what we have, partly, of course, early indicators from Tridonic tell us that in the second half of the year, we will also see a pressure on our prices.
Taking this into consideration, we still believe we can increase the volume to the amount that we are at least on last year's level and slightly above in both our segments. But as I said, the prices. So let me say what we have been benefiting the years after COVID, it's not anymore so with the oversupply what the market has, especially in Europe, that the prices will be as stable as they have been the last two years.
Yeah, okay. So I mean, that sounds a bit like the old pre-pandemic pattern that you've been confronted with for many years. So that actually the pricing erosion has always been biting into the margins. Can we talk briefly about the cost development? Because we're hearing from many companies that, yeah, raw material or input cost deflation leaving personnel expenses aside is actually a certain tailwind to profit. So I mean, when I look at Q4, to me, the gross margin development was better than expected. Has that been helped by lower material cost? And what's kind of the trend that you're seeing or the development for the current business year?
Well, let me answer this question, Thomas, here. Of course, we see some development in prices of raw material. But on the other side, we also decreased the write-offs of our inventory significantly as we have a higher turn rate in our inventory in Tridonic. There is a momentum of about 2%-3% of declining prices from our suppliers. The trend is continuing on the same level. So you don't see sharp drops in raw material prices.
Okay, but it's fair to assume that's not going to be a margin headwind in the current business year.
It will be tailwind, but a low tailwind.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Maybe to add to what Thomas just said, Markus, obviously, it's clear we said at the beginning of our presentation, we are constantly, of course, optimizing across the companies our cost position, right? So we mentioned this already. We have been continuing to do this, moving products into factories that are more cost competitive, what we have. That is an exercise what is constantly going on, but also helps us a little bit.
On the personnel cost development, can you maybe shed some light on the inflation, maybe attach some figures about how much that will go up?
Well, from personal expenses, you can expect an increase of about 6%-8% depending on the countries. Of course, we are fighting back by moving positions to lower-cost countries from our high-cost countries.
Yeah. Okay. That's actually the prelude to my last question on restructuring or relocation of production and then also related to the one-off cost. Is there anything that you can share at this stage or any plans in the drawer that are becoming more concrete?
Markus, we are here evaluating the usual suspects again. As we said, some countries are not performing the way where we need, and the recovery is too slow or not there. We are looking into that one. Then depending also on the volume what we generate, we say, and we would like if it's not the case, we are having underloaded factories. And obviously, with that, we are constantly evaluating that whether then we would need to close an additional factory what is in a high-cost country. But currently, we are careful, optimistic that the volume increases, and we are getting back to semi-normal situation what shows the volume, both on the Tridonic. Obviously, we see already a volume increase. We see a recovery in the factories. But the volume goes up. Unfortunately, prices go down, and it's basically the opposite direction.
The same will be on the luminaire side.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one at this time. It seems there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Alfred Felder for any closing remarks.
Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for your time today to listen to us, also for your questions. That brings us now to the end of this call. We will hear each other again then in autumn with our Q1 results. Thank you so much for listening and have a great day.