The company’s investment in Cloud Application Services shows promising progress, fuelling the quarterly growth rate. This is despite an invasion that directly affects our offices in Kyiv and Lviv.

Itera reports operating revenue of NOK 205.5 million (NOK 158.7 million) for the fourth quarter of 2022, which represents a growth of 29.4%. For 2022 as a whole, Itera’s operating revenue was NOK 735.8 million (NOK 593.0 million). The annualised revenue growth rate the last 24 months has been 21.6% with an average EBIT margin of 11.6%.

– I have never been so proud of how our great people navigate any kind of challenges the invasion of Ukraine represents, says Arne Mjøs, CEO of Itera. 

– I want to thank our incredibly talented people for their extraordinary work and commitment to making 2022 a truly remarkable year for Itera. After Russia’s invasion in Ukraine on 24th of February, no one could imagine that we would be able to deliver organic growth of 29% and an operating EBIT margin of 9.5% in the fourth quarter, he continues. 

Itera has achieved profitable growth while continuing to invest in three new offices in Central Europe, cloud capabilities and the professional growth of employees, all in order to increase the scalability as a strong international company.

Itera’s headcount at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 was 698 as compared to 617 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. This represents an increase of 81 employees (13%) over the last 12 months.

Total operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 32% higher at NOK 186.0 million (NOK 140.6 million), while for 2022 as a whole they were up 28% to NOK 658.6 million (515,9 million). Included in these figures are extra direct costs of the invasion of Ukraine of NOK 3.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 and NOK 7.7 million for the year as a whole related to securing our employees and customer deliveries as well as providing humanitarian support to Ukraine. 

The operating result before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the fourth quarter of 2022 was a profit of NOK 28.2 million (NOK 24.4 million), giving an EBITDA margin of 13.7% (15.4%). For 2022 as a whole, EBITDA was NOK 109.0 million (NOK 101.6 million) with an EBITDA margin of 14.8% (17.1%).

The operating result (EBIT) for the fourth quarter was a profit of NOK 19.4 million (NOK 18.1 million), giving an EBIT margin of 9.5% (11.4%). For 2022 as a whole, EBIT was NOK 77.2 million (NOK 77.0 million) with an EBIT margin of 10.5% (13.0%). Adjusted for the direct costs of the invasion, the EBIT margin would be 11.0% for the fourth quarter and 11.5% for 2022 as a whole. 

– Over the last quarter, the economic outlook for 2023 have continued to deteriorate. However, the latest technology spending forecast for 2023 continues to show robust growth of 5% or so. We believe that the current macro situation makes it even clearer to customers that they need to change more, not less. At the same time, they're more and more focused on cost and resilience, Mjøs says.

– Because speed, cost and resilience are so important to our customers, we often do multiple things at the same time to help in their digital transformation. We continue to see a growing number of customers embrace our Digital Factory at Scale to digitise faster, access digital talent and reduce costs”, he continues.

The revenue from Itera's 30 largest customers accounted for 82% of its operating revenue during the fourth quarter of 2022, which is six percentage points higher than in the fourth quarter of 2021. New customers, defined as customers won during the last 12 months, accounted for 12% of revenue.