We started executing our refreshed growth strategy at the beginning of 2023. During the year, we have transformed from a multi-industry ERP supplier into a vertical SaaS supplier focused on the building ecosystem, with interconnected solutions that enable companies in the industry to significantly improve their productivity. This first phase of our strategy journey also became more visible to our customers after we moved to one Admicom brand at the beginning of 2024 and at the same time renewed the naming of our product suite for additional consistency.
The downturn in the construction industry has hit our customers during the year, and the total volume of the Finnish construction industry is estimated to have decreased by 10%. Admicom’s strength during this challenging time is the continuous revenue model of our products and the fact that our products are mission critical also during difficult times. This was visible throughout the year as good new sales results relative to the cycle of the market. We are pleased to say, that new sales in the fourth quarter were also at the planned level. In terms of sales, the biggest success was the ERP agreement signed with a customer in the turnover category of over EUR 100 million in the summer after a thorough procurement process for the customer. This, and especially the pick-up in sales in the small business segment in the autumn, shows the continued competitiveness of our products. Our organic recurring revenue grew by approximately 11% during the year. The adjustment fees of the Ultima (previously Adminet) solution were at record level (EUR 2.3 million).
Growth was also slowed down by increasing product churn and by customers reducing solution users, especially in project management and documentation solutions. Customer bankruptcies or closures due to insolvency also played a major role in product-specific churn. Measured in euros, the share of bankruptcies in attrition more than doubled during the year compared to the previous year and represented more than a quarter of total attrition. We estimate that the difficulties in the construction sector will continue in 2024 and that bankruptcy attrition will remain high also in the spring, but that the situation will ease towards the end of the year. We also believe that the recession will contribute to accelerating the digitalisation of the construction sector, as productivity will play an increasingly important role as the era of zero interest rates is behind us.
In terms of growth investments, we continued the cautious policy followed after the summer. However, earlier investment decisions and recruitments weighed on profitability, which in the last quarter of the year is otherwise seasonally weakest. However, full-year profitability (EBITA) remained at the strong level of approximately 37% of net revenue, in line with our guidance.
Our strategic development focus for product modernisation, new products, sales and marketing team development and better customer service have progressed well. We believe that these investments will bear fruit during 2024 in the form of stronger new sales and decreasing churn in the second half of the year. As our customers business volume will decrease due to recession it will also decrease the annual adjustment fees in 2024. When customers business recovers this will improve annual adjustments fees again. However, thanks to the investments made and the faster growing ARR portfolio towards the end of the year, we are well positioned to start the phase of accelerated growth after the recession in 2025, in line with our strategy.
In terms of our internationalisation strategy, we proceeded towards the end of the year to market surveys and analysis of acquisition targets. For the time being, we will proceed cautiously in internationalisation. As a rule, we see carefully considered acquisitions in a suitable market as the leading way to internationalise. In terms of acquisitions, we have improved our preparedness and intend to carry out acquisitions that support our product portfolio or expand the market during 2024. We also prepare for this by proposing to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of 70 cents per share (1.3 euro/share in 2023) in accordance with our dividend policy (more than 50% of earnings as dividends).
We are entering the new year as renewed Admicom in many ways. For our personnel, this is reflected in a more uniform culture and way of working, but also in numerous changes. I would like to thank the entire Admicommunity for their enthusiasm and patience on our shared growth journey. In 2024, the changes we make will start to be more clearly visible to our customers in the continuously improving integrations between products, a new and modern dashboard view combining the solutions of our product family, solutions that utilise artificial intelligence and, of course, a unified way of approaching and serving our customers. At Admicom, we want to be an enabler of learning-driven construction, whose solutions provide our customers with an excellent platform to develop their operations to be more productive and sustainable.
Petri Kairinen
CEO