Atea ASA

Q2 gross sales were NOK 18.9 billion, up 12.5% year over year, with organic growth in constant currency of 19.4% and a 5.8% negative currency impact. Net revenue under IFRS was NOK 10.4 billion, up 14.1%. Gross profit increased 3.5% to NOK 2.9 billion, with gross margin lower than last year because hardware made up a larger share of revenue. Operating expenses rose 1.8% to NOK 2.6 billion, and EBIT increased 19.2% to NOK 320 million. Net profit after tax was NOK 218 million, up from NOK 157 million last year. For the first half, gross sales were NOK 33.7 billion, up 12%, EBIT was NOK 796 million versus NOK 549 million, and net profit was NOK 607 million, up more than 90%. No formal next-quarter or full-year financial guidance was given; management said Q3 should be “more of the same,” with continued strong demand and the expectation of better cash flow later in 2026 as inventory comes down.

Steinar Sønsteby struck a confident tone, framing the quarter as strong across the business and saying Atea is well positioned for ongoing demand in the Nordics. He pointed to CIO survey results showing rising IT budgets, low current AI adoption, and skepticism toward public cloud because of sovereignty and data protection, which supports Atea’s hybrid and sovereign data center offering. He emphasized the company’s 16-data-center network, Tier 3 capability, AI platform, and local power access as strategic advantages.

Robert Giori highlighted that sales growth was broad-based, with hardware up 21.2%, software and cloud up 11.7%, and services down 4.7% on a reported basis but slightly positive in constant currency. He said gross profit rose 3.5% to NOK 2.9 billion while operating expenses increased only 1.8% to NOK 2.6 billion, allowing EBIT to grow 19.2% to NOK 320 million. Cash flow from operations was an outflow of NOK 727 million versus an outflow of NOK 111 million last year, mainly because inventory was increased to secure customer deliveries during supply constraints; net debt was NOK 1.3 billion, or 0.5x net debt/EBITDA, and NOK 4.7 billion below covenant limits.

Analysts focused on how much of hardware growth was driven by supply-chain constraints and pricing, and management estimated that roughly half of the 21% hardware growth came from those factors. On services, management said the weakness was mainly due to tough comparisons with an extraordinary prior year and customers prioritizing hardware budgets; they do not see a structural trend or AI replacing this type of work, and expect AI to help services over time. On Denmark, management said recent improvement reflects a reorganized sales structure and better account management, with private business growing faster, more project wins, and early progress on services, though they are “happy but not satisfied.”