Nordics IT and cloud services provider Atea has reported a big jump in profitability for the second quarter. It confirmed results were at “all-time high levels” for the three months ending 30 June 2020.
The performance comes after a recent restructure of its loss-making Danish operation, previously announced job cuts there, and 500 staff being furloughed across the Norway-headquartered group during the pandemic.
Atea’s revenue in Q2 2020 was NOK 10.6bn (€994m), an increase of 11.7% from last year, with growth across all lines of business. Atea reported “exceptionally high growth” in software sales during the quarter, with software revenue up 20.7% from the previous year. Group EBIT in the period increased by 51.4% to NOK 220m. EBIT was at “record high levels” for the second quarter in Norway, Finland and the Baltics. In Denmark, Atea reported a major reduction in EBIT losses, driven by the measures taken to reduce operating costs.
Atea Logistics also reported a “strong increase” in operating profit, based on volumes processed through the company's new logistics centre in Växjö, Sweden.
Group profit before tax was NOK 190m, compared with NOK 124m last year. And net profit after tax grew by 55.3% to NOK 151m. Atea had a positive net financial position (cash, less interest bearing debt) of NOK 459m at the end of Q2 2020.
“Atea has delivered record high financial results in a challenging economic climate,” said Atea CEO Steinar Sønsteby. “The results demonstrate that Atea is well suited for the current business environment, based on its strong leadership position in the IT infrastructure market and on its stable base of public sector and large corporate customers.”
The company has 7,000 employees, is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and had annual revenues of NOK 37bn in 2019.
