Norva24 reported a solid quarter with a 16% total revenue growth, driven by a remarkable 21.5% growth after excluding underperforming Jutzy. The company achieved a currency-adjusted organic growth of 11.3%. Key markets showed resilience, with Sweden growing 10% and Germany up by 3.5%. Notably, the EBITA margin rose 370 basis points in Germany when excluding Jutzy. The company anticipates maintaining this momentum, targeting sustainable organic growth and addressing operational efficiencies. Notably, cash flow surged 44% in Q4, enhancing a strong balance sheet for future acquisitions.
In the latest earnings call, Norva24 reported a robust growth trajectory for the year, showcasing an 8.8% organic growth compared to market averages. The company witnessed organic revenue growth in its core markets: Sweden and Germany both achieved 10%, Norway at 8%, and Denmark saw 4%, culminating in a currency-adjusted organic growth of nearly 9% for the full year. Specifically, Q4 demonstrated an impressive total revenue growth of 16%, adjusting for the underperforming Jutzy unit unveiled a remarkable 21.5% growth and a currency-adjusted organic growth of 11.3%. This positions Norva24 as resilient and competitive even amid challenging economic conditions.
Profit margins displayed variability across regions, largely influenced by the operational inefficiencies of Jutzy, which negatively impacted overall performance. Notably, the EBITA margin for the group adjusted for Jutzy came in at 8.2%, reflecting a decrease of 130 basis points year-over-year. However, excluding Jutzy portrayed a different picture with a margin improvement of 370 basis points in Germany alone, highlighting that the core business remains healthy with an adjusted EBITA margin of 14.4% in Q4. Furthermore, Sweden achieved a significant margin uplift to 14.1%, underlining the strong operational performance in its segments.
Norva24's operational cash flow reached NOK 298 million in Q4, marking a substantial increase of 44% from NOK 206 million in the previous year. The company achieved an annual cash conversion rate of 90.8%, up from 80.9%. The company maintains a robust balance sheet with a net debt of NOK 1.6 billion that corresponds to a net interest-bearing debt over adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.1x. This sound financial position enables the company to pursue acquisitions to support growth. The revolving credit facility has recently expanded from NOK 1.1 billion to NOK 1.85 billion, providing ample liquidity for operational needs and potential investments.
Significant attention was directed toward the challenges posed by Jutzy, which has been a source of operational concern for the company. Despite low activity and profitability from the non-core unit, management emphasized a commitment to winding down non-UIM project operations, which are expected to be minimal (less than 5%) by 2025. The focus will shift towards strengthening the core UIM business, with plans to finalize remaining projects and reduce related financial risks. Management anticipates improvements in profitability once these non-core challenges are managed effectively.
Looking ahead, Norva24 expects organic growth to continue, aiming to leverage its stable foundation and the anticipated benefits from the rollout of new ERP and management systems in its German operations. The company is set to unveil its updated strategy during the upcoming Capital Market Day in March 2025, detailing its approach through 2030. Analysts expressed optimism about the company's operational agility and foresight, noting that the gradual improvement in operational margins and efficient management will likely drive growth moving forward. Overall, Norva24 is poised to harness both organic growth and strategic acquisitions to meet its ambitious targets.
Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of the fourth quarter report of Norva24. My name is Henrik Norrbom, and I'm the CEO. With me on stage, I have our CFO, Stein Yndestad.
Before we start jumping into our Q4 report, I would like to take the opportunity to share information about our Capital Markets Day coming up in Stockholm on the 19th of March. Here we will present our updated strategy, financial targets and the evolution of Norva24 for 2025 to 2030.
We will kick the day off with a site visit leaving Central Stockholm 9:00 in the morning. We will be back in Central Stockholm for lunch at 12:00, and the Capital Market Day will start at 13:00. We, of course, hope to see you there in-person, but we will also live stream the event. Warm welcome, please sign up.
Given the upcoming Capital Market Day, I will not spend time presenting the Norva24 case today, which most of you already know so well.
Okay, now on to the group numbers and the highlights. We continue the growth journey where we see solid development in core business and in addition, a strong cash flow.
Given the negative impact from the underperforming entity Jutzy Haustechnik in Germany, we will comment on the overall numbers, but also on the performance excluding Jutzy, given the fact that we are winding down the non-core projects, the non-core project business that has had such a negative impact on our 2024 performance.
A lot of CEOs always want to exclude things, but in this case, I see it as important to show that we have a healthy and strong core UIM business in Germany.
We talked about this unit in Q2 and Q3 report, but we will be more transparent in the disclosures today, more on Jutzy and Germany later.
We are satisfied with the quarter, with a growth of 15.5% in the total operating revenues and the currency-adjusted organic growth is 6.2%. The adjusted margin for the group was down 1.3% from last year's Q4, which is related to our problem unit in Germany, Jutzy. Adjusting for this, Norva24 has both solid organic growth and margin improvement for the quarter and the full year.
Looking at the operational highlights. All our markets have experienced the revenue growth achieved through a combination of increased utilization, higher prices and new customer agreements. There are margin improvements in all the Scandinavian markets and also in Germany when exclude Jutzy.
Norway is up from a poor quarter last year at 7.9% margin up to 9.6% this year with an organic growth of 7.8%. This is still not where we would like to see the Norwegian operation. We have taken action to secure improved operations in Norway.
Sweden with a solid uplift to a margin of 14.1% with strong organic growth of 8.5% on the back of a solid Q4 last year. Denmark continued the positive development, total growth of 49% and with margin improvements. Currency adjusted organic growth in Denmark was 1.7%.
Germany. Despite the challenging market conditions, the German operations had currency-adjusted organic growth of 3.5% in the quarter, but with a margin reduction of 320 basis points. Excluding for Jutzy, the margin is up by 370 basis points.
In Q4, our operating activities generated a strong cash flow of NOK 298 million, up NOK 92 million from last year's Q4 of NOK 206 million. Overall, we are satisfied with our core businesses in Q4.
Before we go through the segments, I want to present Norva24 group numbers adjusted for Jutzy. Excluding Jutzy gives a more balanced view of the underlying performance and shows that we are on the right path. Overall growth was 21.5% and the currency adjusted organic growth was 11.3% for the quarter. This performance is strong and underpins that our core businesses is resilient and acyclical.
I also want to stress that despite the impact Jutzy and the non-UIM business has had on our 2024 result, it is a limited part of our operations. Non-core operations was less than 10% of German operations in 2024, and expected to be less than 5% in 2025 and significantly less for 2026, as we are discontinuing non-core operations in Jutzy.
The adjusted numbers also show we are on the path of margin improvement, and we are achieved 130 basis points uplift for the quarter when adjusting for Jutzy.
Now, let's go through the segments. Starting with Norway, most Norwegian entities have revenue growth, but on the back of a quite slow quarter last year, which was impacted by bad weather conditions, resulting in an organic growth of 7.8%. The EBITA margin increased by 170 basis points this quarter from last year with a total margin of 9.6%. Even though, we see an improvement, we had expected more from Norway.
To our disappointment, we were not successful in the appeal to the court regarding the acquisition of Vitek. We are continuing to build our position in Bergen and are comfortable that we are the preferred partner to our customers in the Greater Bergen region.
As we informed in January, our head of Norway, Tore Hansen, is stepping down after 6 years in the role. We would like to thank Tore for his strong contribution during these years. We are in the middle of a recruitment process for his successor.
Germany achieving 8.6% total growth and an adjusted EBITA margin of 10.9% and a margin reduction of 320 basis points over the quarter. As mentioned earlier in the presentation, the margin development is affected by low activity in Jutzy, and I will in the next slides present Germany without this company to illustrate that the rest of the entities in Germany are performing strong here.
Okay, next slide. Germany, excluding Jutzy, achieved total growth of 25% and an adjusted EBITA margin of 14.4% in the quarter, a margin improvement of 370 basis points. The same exercise for the full year gives total growth of 18% with an adjusted EBITA margin of 13.1%, and an uplift with 50 basis points for the full year.
This underpins that our core business is performing well in Germany with both growth and margin improvements. We managed to improve our margin in some important units, and we will show this on company-by-company level on the next slide.
But before that, we -- let's see. Before that, one more topic about Germany. We are in the phase of going live with our well-needed business platform in the first entity of Germany. The first part of the business platform, the field services management system, was launched in Q4 and is delivering as expected.
And the second part, which is the ERP, will be live in the summer. Then a broader launch through the rest of the German entities will start. This will support operations in a good way and enabling better utilization of equipment and personnel. It will also help scale the business in a better way.
As promised, here is a transparent overview of the German entities full year. We see from this slide that all operations are delivering double double-digit EBITDA margins. The exception here is Jutzy this year with their non-core UIM business that destroys the picture. Including Germany Group overhead, the margin adjusted for Jutzy was 13.1%, up with 50 basis points.
Before closing the German chapter, I want also to be transparent with our improvement plan for Jutzy. We exit the previous management summer of 2024. Since then, German CEO and CFO has been on the location on a daily basis. We have a new manager in place from 1st of January, 2025.
We are winding down our non-core non-UIM project business. The non-core projects will be finalized during 2025. We have rigorous follow-ups and have limited the financial risk of the one large remaining project.
The revenue reversal from Q3 deemed to be sufficient as we implemented a new control regime, expected to be concluded during first half of 2025. 2025 is our transformation year -- transformation of this company, but we are not expecting any significant restructuring cost. We are now building on our core and healthy UIM business in Jutzy, and we expect to get back to profitability during 2025.
Homework is done, and we have turned every stone and there are no major non-UIM projects in the German operation or other parts of Norva24 for that sake.
Okay. Next slide is Sweden. Sweden continues to perform well with strong currency-adjusted organic growth of 8.5% and the impact of acquisitions leading to a strong growth in total operating revenue at 18.8%. The margin improved organic with 70 basis points and in total, 130 basis points for the quarter.
Full year, the margin has improved by 310 basis points, and the majority of the margin uplift is organic. The Swedish operations and management are really starting to function as a team, and we see a strong broad-based improvement in Sweden. Looking forward to seeing the continued development in 2025.
Okay. Denmark. The Danish operations have improved a lot during 2024. This continued in the fourth quarter. The organic margin improvement is 170 basis points, while Nordic Powergroup, who has their peak season in the summer, has a negative impact on the margin of 130 basis points. This does not worry me as this is following the seasonality we know from them.
Denmark had a revenue growth of 49% in the quarter and 51% full year. Nordic Powergroup contributed a lot to this growth despite only being consolidated from the 21st of May. The organic growth in the Danish operation was 1.7% in the quarter and 4.1% for the full year.
Full year margin improvement for Norva24 Denmark was 390 basis points. The impact of Nordic Powergroup for the full year is significant with 295 basis points contributing to the margin uplift. And there is also a good organic margin improvement of 95 basis points in the Danish operation.
We continue to grow, and we have added close to NOK 500 million of revenues from Q4 2023 and more than NOK 1.1 billion from Q4 2022. Also regarding profitability, we see growth. Our EBITA is up to NOK 384 million on a 12-month rolling basis, up from NOK 279 million 2 years ago. Adjusting for Jutzy, we reached NOK 400 million, up from NOK 309 million.
Okay. I hand over to Stein to go through the financials.
Thank you, Henrik. Before we go to the financial section, I would like to touch on the M&A activity. When we met in May, we were very pleased with the activity and the conversion we had achieved in the start of the year.
Since then, we've kept our cool and pushed some deals into the future as we've seen the financial performance of some of these targets drop. This was related to Germany in particular.
We have not been able to complete the Vitek transaction, and we do not expect this to change in any way. So far this year, we've signed a smaller deal, and we will be closing that in the coming days. It will be a good add-on to the Zimmerbeutel operations in the rural area.
Looking at the funnel. We have worked on expanding our short list and have grown the list with new targets. We currently have 10 targets in the advanced discussion phase, and as stated earlier, we are in no hurry, and it is very important for us to be prudent in these acquisitions and secure the right capital allocation.
We have increased our capacity with the Head of M&A in Nordics to strengthen the Nordics, but also to free up capacity for our Head of M&A, who is located in Germany and who will spend most of his time on this market. We do expect that M&A activity will pick up in the coming months.
And in relation to the Jutzy situation, we have adjusted our M&A approach to secure that we do not run into such issues as we did in Jutzy in the future. It's important to note that we have done more than 50 acquisitions and a very small proportion of these have had a negative impact on the group.
Now let's move on to the financials. As Henrik mentioned, we're satisfied with the revenue growth and the growth in the quarter, with a revenue growth of 15.5% in the quarter and 15.2% for the year. Last quarter, we did a revenue adjustment related to the potential reversal of previously recognized revenues of NOK 3 million related to Jutzy. And based on the information we have today, it appears that, that provision or that reversal is sufficient.
And following that adjustment, during Q4, we have rolled back a small proportion, about 10% of that reversal in Q4 related to a project that we have concluded, and that was sufficient for that project. Actually a little bit more than sufficient, but sort of the benefit of that is an ExRohr in the quarter.
Looking at the cost development. This is quite aligned with our growth in revenues. The other operating expenses increased a lot, around NOK 30 million, and this is primarily related to M&A costs in various forms, but Vitek is a major reason for this increase.
Operational service expenses and personnel costs, which you should see jointly, have increased together in line with our revenues. The same goes for vehicle operating expenses, which are up by 15% in the quarter, so following our revenue development.
The same goes for our depreciation, which is at the same level compared to revenues as last year's fourth quarter. Year-to-date, we've seen a small increase of 25 basis points in relation to revenues on the depreciation.
For the quarter, the adjusted EBITA is 8.2%, and that's a margin reduction of 130 basis points. Year-to-date, the margin is 10.6 percentage points, which is down 40% on last year.
Excluding Jutzy in Germany, the group margin would have been 9.3%, which is 130 basis points higher for the quarter. And year-to-date, the margin would have been 11.5%, which is 80 basis points up from last year.
Our net financial costs were NOK 5 million in Q4 versus NOK 36.6 million last year. The reduction here is coming from recognized earnout gains of NOK 14.2 million, mainly due to the reversal of an earnout accrual in the German acquisition. And we also have a currency gain of NOK 10.7 million. And the interest cost is up by NOK 6.1 million from NOK 22 million to NOK 28.1 million for the quarter.
And this gives us an earnings before tax for the quarter of NOK 56.5 million, and that is up from NOK 23.4 million last year. The tax rate was at a lower level this quarter compared to the year-to-date numbers, and this is mainly due to the year-end calculations that we've done. The tax rate going forward is expected to be at around 25%.
Okay. Let's look at the balance sheet. We continue to show a strong balance sheet. Our net debt of NOK 1.6 billion at the end of the year represents a net interest-bearing debt over adjusted EBITDA of 2.1x. Goodwill of NOK 2.260 billion at the end of the year shows an increase due to the latest acquisition.
We also do this -- we do impairment tests on a regular basis, and these show ample headroom for all cash-generating units, meaning all markets. The lease liability of NOK 1.039 billion is related to the right-of-use assets, which refer to financial leasing of vehicles and property rentals. And the non-current loan of NOK 911 million is primarily the bank loan.
Our investment in the quarter was NOK 134 million, and our investment in machinery and equipment should be around 8% to 9% of revenues in the long run, but we are currently seeing a higher level, driven primarily by 3 factors. We were up due to a lower level of deliveries due to the war in Ukraine in '21 and '22.
The second reason is that we are winning new contracts where we need to increase our capacity. And we also -- the third reason is that we're seeing stricter requirement for carbon-neutral vehicles, meaning electric vehicles or for larger vehicles, gas-fueled equipment, which has also led to new investment.
You could also say that, I mean, we have grown significantly more than the market. And I mean, we're having a growth this year of 8.8% organic, and that also requires more capacity.
Going back to the gas vehicles that we are acquiring, some of these are replacing equipment that has not sort of reached the end of life, and these vehicles we're able to relocate to more rural areas, and they can have sort of a useful life going forward as well.
But still, it does mean that we have a temporary higher level of investment. And we are also expecting to see that in the prices and revenues going forward that the equipment that we're investing is slightly more expensive than it used to be.
Okay. Let's move on to the debt structure of the group. So as our headline says here, about 65% of our debt is related to IFRS 16. So most of our debt is IFRS leases and rental agreements. These leases amounted to NOK 1.040 billion in Q4, a slight increase from NOK 1.016 billion at Q3.
Our total net interest-bearing debt was NOK 1.55 billion at the end of the year, slightly down from last year. And as I said, about 65% of these are capitalized IFRS leases.
Leasing payments for the next 12 months amount to NOK 268 million, which is very close to what it was last year, NOK 267 million. Depreciation of the lease assets is included in the P&L under depreciation.
Net debt, excluding leases, was sort of only NOK 511 million at the end of the year compared to NOK 581 million in the last quarter. The multicurrency revolving loan facility has been increased from NOK 1.1 billion to NOK 1.85 billion, and it has also been prolonged 2 years compared to the 2021 facility. The agreement was signed in Q4. Of the NOK 1.85 billion credit facility, NOK 868 million was utilized at the end of the year. So there is close to NOK 1 billion available.
Then moving on to the cash. In Q4, our operating activity generated NOK 298 million of operating cash flow, and that is up from NOK 206 million last year, so 48% up. For the full year, this number was NOK 661 million, which is up 28% from NOK 516 million last year and a cash conversion of 90.8%, up from 80.9% last year.
We've started initiatives to reduce our working capital in Germany and Denmark, particularly, and we see some positive impacts from this in Denmark -- particularly in Denmark. And the overall net working capital is down from 5.9% of annual revenues last year to 4.6% this year. Although, it is encouraging to see the improvement in net working capital compared to the previous quarter and year, we have yet to reach our target net working capital levels.
Yes. And at the end, just to recap the financial results, it's a good growth in total operating revenues of 15.1% -- 15.5%, sorry. The adjusted EBITA margin uplift in the quarter and full year when we adjust for Jutzy. We see a strong cash flow, and we have a strong balance sheet that enables M&A, and there is still room to continue the growth journey. And the multicurrency revolving credit facility has been increased from NOK 1.1 billion to NOK 1.85 billion.
Now handing over to you, Henrik.
Okay. Thank you, Stein. Summarizing the year, we see very solid organic revenue growth for full year with Sweden and Germany at 10%, Norway at 8% and Denmark at 4%, resulting in currency-adjusted organic growth for the group of close to 9% for the full year. And 3 of 4 markets also achieved margin increases and Sweden, quite significant increase.
Next slide. Key takeaways from this presentation. Financial-wise, we come from a quarter with strong total growth, 16% and adjusting for Jutzy a growth of 21.5% and currency-adjusted organic growth of 11.3%. Reported adjusted EBITA is flat for the quarter. Adjusted for Jutzy, it's up by 40%. Strong operational cash flow, up 44% in Q4 and up 28% full year, and strong cash conversion of 90% full year.
Other takeaways, we are uniquely positioned in an attractive growth market and show resilience in a tough economical climate. And we are prepared and ready to continue the profitable growth journey.
Before we open up for Q&A, I want to repeat that we have a Capital Market Day on the 19th of March in Stockholm to present the updated strategy and the evolution of Norva24, our strategy for 2025 to 2030. Sign up, warm welcome.
Now we open up for Q&As.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Dan Johansson from SEB.
I think I have 3 questions here. So I'll start with the first one here. On Norway, the EBITA margin was up a bit, but perhaps a little bit less than I had anticipated. And if we look a few years back, you were a couple of percentage points higher in Norway during Q4. Is it the holiday season that hampers you bit or is it other seasonality compared to a few years back? Or what explains that the margin doesn't come up even more here in Norway during this quarter?
Good morning, Dan. I think it is -- we're a little bit surprised by the weakening that we saw in Q4, particularly in December. And the surprise was really that the Christmas holiday didn't start on Friday 19 or maybe it was the 20, but it actually more or less started the week before. So we had a fairly slow second half of December, and that really impacted the profitability. And no reason to sort of point that snow and cold weather, because it was pretty good, pretty decent production conditions for the month.
And then we have a couple of units which are not quite up to speed where we would like them to be. And that's something we're applying the playbook and expect to see that improve going forward.
And maybe on Denmark, in terms of seasonality with Nordic Powergroup, I guess Q1 is also low season that will hamper you a bit, and we should then expect a stronger Q2 and Q3. Is that the correct way to see it here going into next year?
I mean, absolutely. I mean, in Nordic Powergroup seasonality, they have their peak season in Q2 and Q3. And that's what we were aware of that when we're buying the company. But it's nothing that worry us. It's followed their seasonality and had a really strong Q2, Q3. We know they are a little bit slower due to their customer base that they're having. So we expect a good year from Nordic Powergroup going forward.
Maybe a final one from my side. You grow a bit above your target for organic growth this year. And I guess maybe inflation helped you a bit. But looking into 2025, you speak about the need to increase capacity, which sounds good and you also perhaps needs to raise prices a bit to reflect the higher Vitek costs. So even if inflation is coming down now, it sounds like you should at least be able to achieve the organic growth you've seen in the past. Is that the right way to understand your thinking here into 2025?
Yes. I mean absolutely, we are planning. I mean we are -- we have possibility to grow organically, and we will -- that's our aim to continue that journey definitely. And of course, adding our acquisition on top of that one. So, yes.
The next question comes from Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Markets.
Thank you for the deep disclosure on the German kind of situation you have ended up in. And just to, sort of, get a full understanding, winding up the rest of this project business as you see it is not really going to be a profitability burden in '25. And then is there anything that you feel are -- is an uncertainty in that kind of projection?
No. I mean, our determination now is taking out that non-core non-UIM projects that we have talked about. And as you said, we wanted to reveal that the company as such, Jutzy and also -- so you see that we have a strong and healthy underlying core business in Germany.
But back to your question there, we will finalize this project during 2025, and we had that accrual from Q3 last year and we -- I mean, the longer we get in and the more we have really turned our stones and we are very close to these projects that we -- we feel more and more comfortable that we have enough accrual to finalize it during 2025.
And should we expect any winding up cost for that part of the operation that is then working in this when you finally close it down?
No. Because it was -- a lot of the revenue in the projects was driven by subcontractors. So we will not have any significant restructuring cost for the company. It is a transformation year that as I said in the earnings call here, but we will not see it with a lot of restructuring cost. It's more of shrinking down now to core and then build from there, build on our core. And the core business within Jutzy is quite healthy.
So it's more of getting rid of the non-core thing, and that's why we were a little bit eager in this call to even it out and show you our core situation due to we are taking out this odd bird as I have called it before in the earnings calls earlier.
And do you have the feeling that the problems you have had in the German project business has, yes, maybe impacted also the other part of the operation. So when you can start to focus on that better, that the general profitability of that operation should also be higher so to speak?
Of course. I mean, we have spent some time and the German management had also spent some time on this. So, of course, we want to get back. But from 1st of January, new management came into Jutzy and the CFO and CEO for Germany can go back to normal a little bit. So more focus on the total operations now going forward, absolutely.
And when you look at -- you mentioned it when you talked about the CapEx needs saying that you have had quite a good win rate. Could you disclose anything about how the win rate has looked in 2024 compared to earlier?
No, we haven't disclosed that. But what we can say is that we've -- particularly in Sweden, we've won quite a few large contracts and then well, Norway as well. But we haven't been very detailed about that, Karl-Johan.
Because I think normally, historically, you talked about that you had maybe 70%, 80% win rate in the kind of situation you've got involved in. Is that a fantastic ratio still there?
I would say, yes, maybe slightly lower because we've been somewhat more -- aggressive is maybe not the right word, but we've been more demanding on what kind of prices are we going to be doing these assignments for.
And also the capital allocation question, where do we spend our CapEx. We want to -- when we go into new contracts, we want to make sure that we have a good capital allocation, not spending CapEx on the wrong places where we don't have -- can't earn a lot of money.
Makes 100% sense. And coming back to the M&A pipeline, so you alluded to that we should expect a pick up here in the coming months. Do you still see that the NOK 4.5 billion revenue target for this year as reachable with that kind of -- with what you see in the M&A pipeline?
That NOK 4.5 billion is a statutory number. And of course, it is becoming more challenging as, if you look at the -- if you take the revenues from 2024, you add on sort of, I don't know, what -- if you add on 6%, you're very close to NOK 4 billion on that number. And that would mean sort of doing M&A for NOK 500 million for the year on a statutory basis, and that is, of course, challenging. But we haven't completely abandoned the target, so to speak. Or we haven't abandoned the target.
But just an add on that, we want to be prudent in our M&A journey, making good acquisition. We can reach the NOK 4.5 billion, but we want to do it responsibly.
Makes total sense. And looking at the strong working capital release you saw in Q4, is there any temporary thing that is helping you in that number? Or is that what you talked about, say, progress in Denmark and a good year-end kind of development?
No. It is a positive underlying development. But Nordic Powergroup has not been great at working capital. And the fact that they've had sort of a slow season towards the end of the year also means that the accounts receivable in that unit has been taken down. But that's just -- that's one cause. So I think it is that they have improved the routines and systems for this, and we will just need to continue working on that.
And Germany, Germany is a little bit of a special case here, because it is quite old fashioned. Up until 1st of January this year, you could insist on getting the invoices by post. Luckily now from the 1st of January, we can actually send it electronically, and that also improves work in progress, account receivable in Germany.
And just one final more deep question if you're looking at. I saw that you did some changes to the lease accounting in the cash flow. Could you just elaborate what you were doing and what you adjusted for?
Yes. No, it was...
Or how do you take this?
I mean, it was -- in a sense, it was a mistake in the way we showed the cash flow because we -- for Q4 -- since Q4 last year, for some reason, interest cost was being deducted or added back up on the cash flow. In the overall picture, it didn't change the situation, but it added around NOK 10 million of operating cash flow for Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 last year in the reporting. So that's what we've reversed now or corrected now.
So if I did this kind of lease accounting adjustment to my way of looking at cash flow already before, it's basically the same thing as that before.
Yes.
The next question comes from Jacob Edler from Danske Bank.
I just have 2 short follow-ups, and please correct me if you covered this. I missed 1 or 2 questions while hopping on the line. But starting there, I appreciate the added color on Jutzy, clearly. Just a more detailed question, if you can provide some color. I mean, how much of the sales in Jutzy in '24 was related to these non-core UIM projects? And a follow-up on that is, what -- can we assume German margins on the UIM part of Jutzy?
I think it is -- in '24, it was actually a quite substantial number. Say around half of revenues in 2024 were related to this -- these kind of activities. And that's sort of the non-UIM part. And a smaller part of that is what we have described as this project.
Yes.
So the margin on the other part of the UIM business and Jutzy is quite okay. The thing is in, 2024 that operation has somewhat suffered. I mean we've been -- we exited the management midyear, and we've had the German management being partly in charge or in charge of the operation. So it has not been what it should be.
Going forward, we expect that the UIM part of Jutzy will be more in line with the margins we see in Germany, as we have from the 1st of January, a new manager in place in Germany.
Just a second question, just a housekeeping question. But last year, corporate cost was quite low, and this year it was quite high. I'm just wondering, is it fair to assume NOK 14 million to NOK 15 million per quarter going forward, it was maybe just a tad high in this quarter. Is that a fair assumption?
That's correct. I mean, this year, its NOK 19.7 million, and that is -- your number of, say, NOK 14 million to NOK 15 million is much more precise. What we see in the cost base here is that, we've used quite a few consultants in some areas, one of them being mapping up our business processes and preparing for that project also in the Nordics. And this is cost that we haven't [ exoed ] and you can't capitalize it because it is prior to starting the implementation. So I think the level of, say, around NOK 60 million is probably more the level you should see going forward on an annual basis.
The next question comes from Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Markets.
Looking at the Vitek situation, have you decided to walk away from that acquisition? Or are you going to challenge it to the next level in the system?
No. I mean, we have terminated the share purchase agreement, and we're sort of -- we've given up.
Excellent, that makes sense.
But just to underlying that question, it's not end of the world. It's one acquisition. We are strong in Bergen, and we are building our position stronger organically instead. So -- I know that, we have received questions around our acquisition journey in Norway. It's definitely not ended. It's a lot of things to do here. So no worries about that.
Looking forward to the next transaction then.
The next question comes from Jacob Edler from Danske Bank.
Just interesting on the Vitek situation. Just when you say that you're confident in being able to do more M&A in the German market, does that also include -- like there's some big private players still on the Norwegian market like [ Via ] or 365, et cetera. Would you -- do you still think you would be able to do sizable acquisitions in that market after the Vitek outcome?
I mean, this was a local question. The competitor situation locally in Bergen, of course, we are not happy with the decision. We have another view of it. I mean, there are so many places in Norway where it looks different competitive-wise and so on. So I don't see the problem.
Then, if we can buy the big one, the substantial ones, I mean, that can be another question. But there's a lot of medium-sized -- small and medium-sized companies, a healthy one that could really be a good puzzle piece in our building on Norway.
Looking forward towards -- to the CMD in March.
Thank you.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Jenna Xu from Berenberg Bank.
My question is regarding more specifically on the rest of Germany operations, excluding Jutzy. I mean, I really appreciate this sort of transparent disclosure. I'm just kind of wondering what should we expect for the German margins going forward for the next few quarters, especially since you also mentioned the implementation of that like the ERP and field services tool back in Q4 and the ERP that's going to be rolled out in the summer. So I was just thinking what should we expect for the next few quarters in terms of margins and growth?
We're not going to give sort of any guidance on the margin specifically for the next few quarters here. But I mean, we do believe that the ERP project that we're implementing will, over time, give us some fairly significant benefits on the operational side. We'll get more into the details on the Capital Markets Day on this. But there is -- I mean, we're quite confident we're doing good in Germany, and we're also seeing some decent margins.
Management has spent a very large share of their time on the Jutzy case, and that's not a great situation for us to be in. So I don't know if you want to...
I mean, we should not guide on Germany going forward. But as you see, that's why we wanted to be transparent that we have a good underlying healthy business, taking out the non-core stuff that we are winding down.
But coming to the business platform there, I mean, as stated in the call here, we are -- we have started the pilot. We are -- we have seen good signs. I mean, we are still in one of the units, implemented first the field services management tool, then the ERP. When everything seems to be okay there, we start rolling out entity by entity.
If we could see any -- I would not stand here and promise that we can see it in the numbers in short time. But I mean, in the second half of the year, I mean, I'm very curious, and we are -- a lot of people really looking forward to see what this can give us, because it's really something new to put all the entities on the same platform, being able to read, to cooperate.
And I mean, the key to success for us to have utilization on our vehicles and personnel. And this is something really and a good control of the situation so we can steer it from a price perspective, planning perspective, route optimization. So -- but if it -- I cannot stand here and promise that you will see it in May.
We are in the implementation phase. Everything looks good so far and really looking forward to see the benefits going forward. But it will also be more on this tool and the journey on the Capital Market Day.
Just a final comment. I mean, the German economic state is not great, but still we're able to deliver solid growth and also margin improvement, excluding Jutzy. So we feel like the business is quite resilient and quite acyclical, and it's very much up to us what we are able to achieve here.
And we have to remember that German society is in recession and have like a negative or flat GDP growth for quite some time. But we still, as a company, can produce organic margins and -- organic margin increase and also better margins. So I think that is really strong and are good proof for the Norva24 case.
Yes, makes sense. So just kind of looking at the slide with sort of the various margin developments of the company. So I see that like the margins are not very consistent across '23 and '24. We have some companies that saw huge margin -- like a huge jump in margins and others that look like maybe the margins declined a little. So I'm guessing this is just sort of usual business fluctuations and nothing major to be concerned about here?
It's quite normal situation that is going a little bit up and down. We have companies -- we're still on Germany, I assume. I mean, we still have companies that have assignments and contracts that are really boosting in a year and then you go out from there and find new ones and so on. So it can be a variance between -- it's not -- we are not driving a business that is super steady quarter by quarter by quarter. It's up and down. It's for us to always improve.
And as you see, and I also mentioned, some of the entities are have higher margins, some have taken a little bit back, but they can be the one that's stepping forward next year and so on. But our aim is always to move the whole cake, so to speak.
[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions.
Yes. I have a final question here that hasn't been addressed so far.
What is the risk with the project business in Germany as there is still some 5% of German -- as it is still some 5% of German revenues in 2025.
That is correct. I mean in Turpe, we have still some of these projects. We're not bidding for new ones. We're not entering into new --
In Jutzy.
In Jutzy -- we're not entering any of these contracts anymore. What we're doing is we're finalizing some of these. And there is really only one large contract left, and we're following that up in a very different way than the previous project. And I'm not saying it's going to be hugely profitable, but it's not going to be a bomb. There is not going to be a very big surprise where we have a big loss on one of these contracts. And the larger one is being monitored in a very, very different way. So I'm not too concerned about that.
That was the final question.
Yes. Big thank you for listening into our earnings call, and have a nice day.