Annual Report

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2023

Contents

Introduction 3

Key Figures 3

This is Atea 5

Letter from the CEO 8

Directors’ Statement 12

The Board of Directors’ Report 12

Corporate Governance 22

Shareholder information 30

Members of the Board 33

Sustainability at Atea 36

Climate Impact Mitigation 51

EU Taxonomy 60

Responsible Value Chain 66

Financial Statements and Notes 69

Atea Group Financial Statements 70

Atea Group Financial Notes 75

Atea ASA Financial Statements 120

Atea ASA Financial Notes 125

Appendix 134

Responsibility statement 134

Auditor’s Report 135

Auditor’s Report on sustainability 140

Alternative Performance Measures 143

GRI Index 151

One IT infrastructure partner for your digital transformation

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Key Figures

Operating profit

2019–2023 (NOK in million)

Revenue

2019–2023 (NOK in million)

1 Atea has implemented a change in accounting policy due to an Agenda Decision approved by the IFRS® Accounting Standards Interpretations Committee on April 20, 2022. Under the Agenda Decision, revenue from the resale of software and vendor services is recognized on a net basis - see Note 5 for more information. Gross Sales is an Alternative Performance Measure which reflects gross invoiced revenue to customers, and is comparable to previous years’ revenue reporting. Revenue is Gross Sales, following the change in accounting policy to apply net accounting treatment to the resale of software and vendor services.

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We are Atea

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One IT partner for your digital transformation

Atea is the market leader in IT infrastructure and related services for businesses and public sector organizations in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

Strength in our markets

With over 8,000 employees located in 88 cities, in seven European countries — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — Atea has a powerful local presence across all of the markets we serve.

We offer a complete range of IT infrastructure products and services to make sure our customers succeed with the use of informa- tion technology. We have over 4,000 service personnel to advise and support your organ- ization through the entire lifecycle of their IT purchases. Through the breadth and depth of our competence, we help customers to design, implement and manage the IT infrastructure upon which their organization depends.

Making a difference with technology

Equally important, we are among the top channel partners in Europe for many of the world’s leading technology companies, including: Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, HP Inc,

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Lenovo, VMware and Dell Technologies.

Atea has the highest level of vendor certifi- cation across its key technology partners and is frequently recognized with awards for its performance.

Based on Atea’s unique mix of competence and technology partnerships, our customers count on us for professional insight on how to do more with IT. To that end, Atea is at the forefront of the latest technologies for mobility, collaboration and big data, as well as IT-as-a-service and cloud computing.

As a result, we help customers solve prob- lems and get maximum productivity from their IT investments.

Built for growth and sustainability

As a publicly traded company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Atea takes pride in its

long-term record of delivering above-market revenue growth and in providing a healthy, consistent dividend payout to investors. For 2023, Atea reported gross sales of NOK 51.9 billion: up 11.3 percent compared to last year, and the highest in our company’s history.

Corporate responsibility and good steward- ship of our planet are also at the core of what we do. Atea has received numerous awards and recognitions for its efforts in corporate sustainability throughout 2023:

Atea was awarded the highest rating in environmental and social performance by EcoVadis in 2023. This achievement ranks Atea in the top 1% of 100,000 organ- izations evaluated globally for the fourth consecutive year.

Atea was ranked as the world’s most sustainable company in the IT Services Industry, by Corporate Knights (Global 100 Index 2024) for the third consecutive year.

Atea achieved an A rating in CDP’s annual climate change questionnaire, marking a new personal best for our company since first reporting to CDP over ten years ago.

Atea was recognized as one of Europe’s Diversity Leaders in 2024, clinching the 50 th spot among IT companies in the fifth edition of the annual Financial Times Europe’s Diversity Leaders ranking. This distinction underscores Atea’s commit- ment to fostering inclusion and diversity within an IT industry. Notably, this marks the first time Atea has received such recognition.

Atea’s long-term sustainability goals are stated in its Vision 2030: a 10-year plan for building a better, more sustainable future with IT. For more information, please refer to the Vision 2030 section of the report.

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Letter from the CEO

2023 was another solid financial year for Atea - with record high revenue and EBIT, and with very strong cash flow. However, from an industry perspective, the past year will be best remem- bered for the acceleration of market development in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI-powered IT solutions are not a new trend. Rather, AI tech- nology has been developed and implemented across a broad range of applications over many years. What has fundamentally changed over the past year is the explosive growth of gener- ative AI solutions such as ChatGPT. This has taken AI to the forefront of public awareness and to the digital transformation agenda of major public and private sector organizations.

In a time of rapid technological change, Atea is ideally posi- tioned as a bridge between our vendors and customers. Our technology partners - including leaders in Artificial Intelligence such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, Google, and IBM - have invested billions of dollars to develop new products but rely on Atea’s account relationships and local service teams to reach new customers and drive adoption of new technologies.

Our customers - including the largest organizations in the Nordic and Baltic region - need expert assistance to understand the potential of new technologies and to implement and operate these solutions. With the largest team of IT consultants in our geographies and the highest level of certification across key technology vendors, Atea has unique capabilities to support customers in achieving success with their digital transformation.

The next generation of AI is just the latest development in a continuous cycle of innovation which has driven long-term growth in the IT infrastructure market over decades. New IT solutions create value for customers but also place ever- growing demands on their IT environments. The additional complexity strengthens Atea’s competitive position as a full-service provider of IT infrastructure solutions.

The rapid development in the field of AI creates many new market opportunities for Atea. In the short term, some of the market opportunities for Atea are:

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Copilot for Microsoft 365: Microsoft Copilot is a produc- tivity solution which uses AI to enhance the functionality and user experience of popular Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. The product has been sold as an add-on to Microsoft 365 since November 2023.

At its launch, Microsoft Copilot was only sold to large enter- prises which could commit to purchasing a large volume of user subscriptions. These restrictions were removed in January this year, and we have since seen an acceleration in customer demand for the product. As Copilot runs in the Microsoft cloud, the use of Copilot also generates consump- tion of Microsoft Azure, which creates an added revenue stream for Atea.

In addition to Copilot for Microsoft 365, many other software products are being enhanced with AI. This will drive new demand and higher pricing for other software applications which Atea sells.

Next generation Windows: Microsoft has embedded AI functionality to enhance the user experience in the latest versions of Windows 11. Due to the increased functionality, the Windows 11 operating system has significantly stricter PC hardware compatibility requirements than Windows 10.

This means that many existing PCs will not be able to upgrade to the new version of Windows.

At the same time, Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will go end-of life in October 2025. After this date, Microsoft has stated that it will not provide any further security updates, enhancements or support to Windows 10 users.

As the end-of-life date for Windows 10 approaches, we expect that many organizations will soon migrate users to Windows 11, and that this will result in a major PC refresh cycle as older PC hardware is replaced.

Hardware/data platforms for training AI models: Many organizations have begun innovating with AI to automate processes and gain greater insights from information which is gathered at a scale too large for traditional data processing. This requires training AI models with information from their own enterprise, combined with external data sources or foundational models.

Atea provides customers with data platforms for training AI models and deploying AI solutions from partners such as Microsoft (Azure AI) and IBM (Watsonx). In order to success- fully train AI models, organizations require huge amounts of processing power. While this processing power can be

procured through public cloud providers, the public cloud is not always a viable option for customers managing highly sensitive information.

An alternative approach is to expand the organization’s own data centers, with server clusters based on NVIDIA GPUs. Servers based on NVIDIA GPUs are significantly more powerful and more expensive than those in general use. Atea has seen a significant pickup in customer demand for servers with NVIDIA GPUs during the past year. Recently, an Atea customer interested in testing AI purchased servers with 96 NVIDIA GPUs for a total sum of NOK 60 million.

Consulting: As organizations deploy new software with AI functionality and begin the process of preparing data for AI models, they need extensive support from experienced consultants. Atea has had very high customer demand for workshops on new AI-based software releases and training on the requirements for driving innovation with AI.

Finally, AI tools are unfortunately being used by malicious actors to design more sophisticated attacks on computer systems. The growing threat landscape is driving increased demand for Atea’s IT security consultants and security monitoring services.

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Over the longer term, we expect to see more customers applying AI tools on their own data to drive innovation, gain new insights and automate processes. The use of AI will result in higher customer demand for IT infrastructure across Atea’s product and service portfolio.

Atea has many customers which are already innovating with AI models to enhance their operations. One such customer is the National Archive of Finland, which is using AI to accelerate the digitization, categorization and security clearance of archived information, including film, photos, books and other docu- ments.

The Norwegian Council for Road Safety is using AI to compile and enable access to global statistics and research about traffic risks and accidents. The Swedish Transport Administration is using AI to predict delays in train schedules following any disruption in the rail network and to communi- cate these delays to users. Finally, Atea has begun using AI to

compile and distribute information from many sources on its sustainability and ESG performance.

However - widespread customer adoption of AI technology will be a journey, not a sprint. Most organizations do not presently have a high level of data readiness to apply AI tools to their own data lakes. Any training of AI models would necessarily start with smaller data sets and narrow use cases. Finally, there is a question of budgets and timing - when will customers see sufficient value potential to invest in the required platforms and capabilities.

We expect to see many new customers innovating with AI in the coming years, but we are probably at the peak of the hype curve where public attention on a new technology is ahead of actual adoption for most users. As the famed Stanford professor Roy Amara said many years ago, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” This statement has

been proven correct so many times that it is now known as “Amara’s Law”.

AI will have a transformational effect on the market for information technology, but the uptake will take time. As it happens, Atea is very well positioned to gain from the resulting growth in demand for IT infrastructure and services. Some areas of our business will already benefit from the adoption of AI during 2024, with much more to come in the following years.

As with any new technology, AI is one more reason to invest in Atea for the long-term. I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2024.

Steinar Sønsteby CEO of Atea ASA

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Board of Directorsʼ Report 2023

The Nordic market for IT infrastructure was highly volatile during 2023, with a strong first half followed by a softer second half. During the first half of 2023, hardware spending grew rapidly following the COVID pandemic as customers upgraded their workplace IT environments after their employees returned to on-premise work. At the same time, global constraints in hardware manufacturing eased, enabling delivery of a high volume of customer orders which had been held up in backlog. During the second half of 2023, hardware deliveries returned to more normal volumes, resulting in slowing growth in gross sales compared with last year.

Despite a turbulent market, Atea finished the year with record high gross sales, revenue and EBIT, and with a very healthy cash flow and balance sheet. Revenue grew by 7.1% to NOK 34,704 million, and EBIT increased to NOK 1,244 million. Cash flow from operations was NOK 1,878 million, up from NOK 1,030 million last year. Atea finished the year with a net cash balance of NOK 961 million, as defined by Atea’s loan covenants.

Atea continued to gain recognition for its industry leadership in corporate social responsibility. Atea was recognized as one of the most sustainable corporations in the world (41 st overall, and 1 st in the IT services industry) by Corporate Knights as

part of their annual “Global 100” ranking. Atea was awarded the highest rating in environmental and social performance by EcoVadis for the fourth consecutive year, ranking Atea in the top 1% of 100,000 organizations evaluated globally. Atea also earned an A rating in CDP’s annual climate change question- naire, widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency.

The Board of Atea ASA would like to thank all Atea employees for their contribution to the Group’s solid performance during the past year.

Company overview

Atea is the leading provider of IT infrastructure and related services to organizations within the Nordic and Baltic regions. The Group has over 8,000 employees and is located in 88 cities across Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Approximately 65% of Atea’s sales are to the public sector, with the remainder of sales to private companies. The Group is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.

Atea is the largest provider of IT infrastructure within each of its local markets and is the third largest provider in Europe. The company’s sales in the Nordic and Baltic regions are approxi- mately three times higher than its largest competitor, with an

estimated market share of approximately 23%. Atea’s business strategy is to strengthen and consolidate its market leadership position through organic growth and selective acquisitions, and to continuously focus on improving operating efficiency.

Through its scale of operations, Atea has critical advantages over smaller competitors in purchasing power, local market presence, breadth of product and service offering, system integration competence, and cost-efficient support and logistics functions. This is reflected in the long-term financial performance of the Group. Atea’s leading market position and competence in IT infrastructure have enabled the company to grow organically at a rate higher than that of the market. Since 2020, Atea’s annual rate of organic sales growth in constant currency has been 9% in a market that has grown by about 8% per year, according to preliminary estimates from IDC‌ 1 .

In addition to organic growth, Atea has pursued an M&A strategy to further strengthen and consolidate its market posi- tion. Atea’s current organizational structure is the result of the merger of the leading IT infrastructure companies in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Baltic region in 2006 – 2007. Since these mergers, Atea has acquired more than 50 compa- nies to enhance its offering and expand its customer reach. The acquired companies have been purchased at valuation

1 International IT research company, International Data Corporation.

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multiples significantly below those of Atea. Atea plans to continue actively acquiring companies to consolidate its market position in the coming years.

To address the needs of the Nordic and Baltic markets, Atea works closely with leading international IT companies, such as Microsoft, Cisco, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Apple, Lenovo, VMware, and Dell Technologies. These companies view the Nordic region as a critical market for the early adoption of new technologies and work closely with Atea to penetrate these markets. This enables Atea to stay at the forefront of the latest IT trends, and to offer its customers new and innovative IT solutions.

Market trends

The market for information technology is in the midst of dramatic change, with profound effects on society known as the “digital transformation”.

Across private enterprise and throughout the public sector, organizations are converting vast amounts of information into digital form. As information is made digital, it can be collected, processed, managed, and distributed with methods and at a scale that was previously impossible. This “digitalization” enables public and private organizations to completely rede- fine how they provide goods and services, and how these goods and services are consumed and shared.

The resulting “digital transformation” is driving innovation in all sectors of the economy and in all public services, including

health, welfare, education, defense, policing and infrastructure management. Collectively, this can result in major improve- ments in productivity and living standards.

At the same time, the “digital transformation” places even greater demands on organizations’ IT environments, as the amount of data that is being managed grows exponentially across a broadening range of devices. Furthermore, as digital information and processes become central to the definition of goods, services and of work itself, the capabilities and stability of the IT environment become essential for organizations to function. Consequently, the risk of security breaches becomes ever greater. All of this creates a level of complexity that IT departments struggle to support.

This presents a significant opportunity for Atea, as the leading provider of IT infrastructure and system integration in the Nordic and Baltic regions. Through its breadth of compe- tency and depth of expertise, Atea supports its customers in managing the continuous growth and increased complexity of their IT environments. Atea helps its customers to design, implement and operate the IT infrastructure upon which they are dependent as their operations become increasingly digital.

Business strategy

Atea’s business strategy is to act as a full-service IT infra- structure partner for its customers - enabling its customers to successfully pursue their digital transformation initiatives and manage the increasing complexity of their IT environments.

In order to earn a position as a trusted IT partner, Atea provides a complete range of IT infrastructure solutions, with a highly trained service team to support its customers in capturing maximum value from their IT investments.

Atea’s solution offering:

The range of solutions which Atea provides its customers can be categorized into three major areas: “Digital Workplace”, “Hybrid Platforms” and “Information Management”.

“Digital Workplace” consists of all the devices and software through which users conduct work, access data and appli- cations, and interact with each other. Examples include PCs, mobile phones and tablets, audio/video and conferencing solutions, smart displays, printers, and more.

“Hybrid Platforms” are the data center and network infra- structure through which organizations process, store, and distribute information. The category includes both on-premise infrastructure and cloud solutions, as well as “hybrid” solutions that integrate the two.

“Information management” consists of tools and methods through which organizations collect and administer data, and then derive value from this information. This includes Atea’s practices within AI, data protection, analytics, and automation technologies.

Atea’s service portfolio:

Atea supports customers with the design, implementation and operation of their IT environments through a broad portfolio of services. The service portfolio can be broken into three

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categories: “Lifecycle Management”, “Professional Services”, and “Managed Services”.

“Lifecycle Management”: Atea’s service team assists customers in all aspects of managing their IT assets throughout the lifecycle of each product they acquire. This includes services to help customers deploy, install, finance, maintain, track and dispose of their IT assets.

“Professional services”: Atea’s consultants advise customers in the design and integration of their IT environments, the management of their information, and how specific IT solu- tions can best be used to fulfill their objectives.

“Managed services”: Atea is a managed service provider that helps customers operate their IT environments either on-premise or from the cloud. Atea’s managed services enable customers to dedicate less time and resources to IT operations and instead focus on their core objectives.

Financial summary

Income Statement

Group gross sales grew by 11.3% in the full year 2023 to NOK 51,938 million, with solid growth in sales across all lines of business. Revenue increased by 7.1% to NOK 34,704 million. Currency translation differences had a positive impact of 6.6% on Group revenue in the full year 2023.

Hardware revenue increased by 4.1% to NOK 24,130 million, driven by higher sales of networking solutions. Software

revenue grew by 18.3% to NOK 1,286 million, based on strong demand from both public and private sector customers. Services revenue increased by 14.2% to NOK 9,288 million, with higher sales of both consulting and managed services.

Gross profit was NOK 10,249 million, compared with NOK 9,002 million last year. Gross margin increased from 27.8% to 29.5%, based on improved hardware margin and a higher proportion of software and services in the revenue mix.

Total operating costs were NOK 9,005 million, up 15.4% from last year. Adjusted for currency movements, operating expenses grew by 8.3% compared with last year. The growth in operating expenses was mostly due to an increase in the workforce and overall inflation.

EBIT for the full year 2023 was NOK 1,244 million, up 4.0% from last year. The EBIT margin was 3.6%, on the same level as last year.

Net financial items were an expense of NOK 223 million for the year, compared with an expense of NOK 112 million in 2022. Net interest expenses on loans and deposits were NOK 122 million, compared with NOK 71 million last year, due primarily to higher interest rates. Interest costs on leases increased to NOK 74 million, compared with NOK 61 million last year, due to the impact of rising interest rates on new facility lease contracts. Foreign currency effects and other items were an expense of NOK 28 million compared with a gain of NOK 19

million last year, due to the impact of currency movements on balance sheet items.

Profit before tax was NOK 1,021 million compared with NOK 1,084 million last year. Tax expenses were NOK 221 million in 2023, compared with NOK 235 million last year. Net profit after tax was NOK 800 million, down from NOK 848 million last year, due to the impact of higher interest rates and currency effects on net financial items. This represents a basic earnings per share of NOK 7.22 in 2023 compared with NOK 7.62 in 2022.

In accordance with section 3-3a of the Norwegian Accounting Act, the Board of Directors confirms that the prerequisites for continued operations have been met, and that the financial statements have been prepared on a going-concern basis.

Segmentation

Atea has commercial operations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Baltics. These geographic regions have their own management and are reported as separate operating segments. There is also a Shared Services operating segment, which encompasses support functions such as Atea Logistics and Atea Global Services.

The financial performance of each business unit is presented in Note 4 of the Group financial report. A summary of business performance follows:

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Sweden is Atea’s largest market, representing 37% of Group revenue in 2023. In 2023, revenue in Atea Sweden decreased by 3.2% to SEK 12,896 million, due to lower hardware sales. EBIT for the full year increased by 3.9% to SEK 652 million.

Norway is Atea’s second-largest market, representing 24% of Group revenue in 2023. In 2023, revenue in Atea Norway increased by 2.9% to NOK 8,288 million, driven by strong growth in sales of services. EBIT in Norway was NOK 332 million, compared with NOK 387 million in 2022.

Denmark is Atea’s third-largest market, representing 23% of Group revenue in 2023. In 2023, revenue in Atea Denmark fell by 0.8% to DKK 5,287 million, due to lower hardware sales. EBIT was DKK 80 million, an increase of 13.9% from 2022.

Finland represented 11% of Group revenue in 2023. In 2023, revenue in Atea Finland increased by 9.5% to EUR 331.6 million, driven by strong demand for hardware from public sector customers. Atea Finland also showed strong growth in its consultancy business, supported by its acquisition of Gambit Group in April 2022. Based on high growth in sales, EBIT increased by 14.0% from last year to EUR 12.3 million.

The Baltics (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) represented 5% of Group revenue in 2023. In 2023, revenue in Atea Baltics increased by 4.1% to EUR 149.6 million based on high growth in consulting and managed services. EBIT increased by 13.8% to EUR 7.2 million.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

As of 31 December 2023, Atea had total assets of NOK 18,636 million. Current assets such as cash, receivables and inventory represented NOK 11,509 million of this total. Non-current assets represented NOK 7,127 million of this total, and primarily consisted of goodwill (NOK 4,336 million), right-of-use leased assets (NOK 1,314 million) property, plant and equipment (NOK 514 million), and deferred tax assets (NOK 209 million).

Atea had total liabilities of NOK 14,437 million, and share- holders’ equity of NOK 4,199 million as of 31 December 2023. In order to reduce the volatility of its working capital and debt balances throughout the year, Atea sells specified accounts receivable through a securitization program organized by

its bank. At the end of 2023, Atea had sold receivables of NOK 1,872 million under the securitization program.

The Group’s cash flow from operations was an inflow of NOK 1,878 million in 2023, based on solid cash earnings and lower working capital balances. Atea’s inventory levels fell sharply from the elevated levels of 2021 and 2022, when Atea held surplus inventory to ensure timely customer deliv- eries during a period of supply constraints in the electronics industry.

Cash flow from investments was an outflow of NOK 320 million in 2023, primarily driven by capital expenditure in IT systems and data center equipment. Cash flow from financing was an outflow of NOK 1,082 million in 2023. The negative cash flow from financing was primarily due to dividend payments of NOK 693 million and lease payments of NOK 362 million.

The Group’s net cash flow was an inflow of NOK 476 million in 2023. Currency fluctuations increased the cash balance by NOK 190 million during the year. The Group’s cash balance was NOK 1,587 million on 31 December 2023, compared with NOK 922 million on 31 December 2022. At the end of 2023, Atea had a positive net financial position as defined by Atea’s loan covenants (total cash balance, less interest-bearing debt excluding right-of-use leases) of NOK 961 million.

Atea’s long-term interest-bearing debt primarily consists of a project finance loan of NOK 588 million from the European