Since 2023 Epinova has grown its revenue by 18.3% a year on average

Fast growth, flat equity

Epinova AS is an Oslo-based IT and digital consulting company, organised as an aksjeselskap, the Norwegian private limited company. It reports as a standalone company, in Norwegian kroner (NOK), on a calendar year. Its revenue rose from NOK 171m in 2023 to NOK 240m in 2025, an average growth of 18.3% a year. In 2025 alone revenue rose 20.5%, from NOK 199m to NOK 240m.

Profit did better than keep pace. Operating profit rose 59.4% to NOK 30.1m, and net profit rose 56.6% to NOK 24.4m. The operating margin, the share of each krone of revenue left after running the business, widened from 9.5% to 12.6%.

Now the part that does not fit. Equity at the end of 2025 stood at NOK 10.0m, up only NOK 83.9k from NOK 10.0m a year earlier. Cash rose by NOK 343k to NOK 5.4m. Meanwhile total assets grew from NOK 68.4m to NOK 90.6m. The equity ratio, the share of the balance sheet financed by the owners rather than by creditors, fell from 14.6% to 11.1%.

So the company earned NOK 24.4m in a year and its equity moved by a rounding difference. A business that grows this fast and this profitably would normally get stronger on the balance sheet. Epinova got larger and thinner at the same time.

Where a consultancy's growth goes

Growth in consulting is built from people. Every new client project needs consultants hired, trained and paid before the first invoice goes out. Then the invoice itself takes weeks to turn into cash. Extra revenue therefore drags along receivables and work in progress that the company has to carry until the client pays. That is why total assets usually rise with revenue in this kind of business, and why someone has to finance the difference.

There are only a few ways to finance it: retained profit, fresh capital from the owners, or credit from suppliers, staff costs not yet paid, taxes due and lenders. At Epinova the balance sheet grew while equity stood still, so the growth was carried by liabilities rather than by the owners' money.

The profit itself left the equity line. With net profit of NOK 24.4m and equity up only NOK 83.9k, practically the whole year's result was distributed or otherwise taken out. In Norway that usually means a dividend or a group contribution (konsernbidrag), a transfer of profit to a parent company that is common in Norwegian groups. The accounts do not show which route the money took or to whom; the notes on equity and on related parties would settle it.

None of this is wrong in itself. Owners of a profitable private company are entitled to its profit, and paying it out keeps the return on equity high. It does mean the company carries its growth on a slim base: equity of NOK 10.0m against a balance sheet of NOK 90.6m.

Good margins, ordinary for the trade

The profitability holds up against comparable Norwegian companies. Across 8 peers in IT and consulting, the median operating margin in 2025 was 12.5%. Epinova's 12.6% sits 0.1 pp above it, which is to say almost exactly on the median. The spread among peers is wide: Devoteam AS earned an operating margin of 3.0%, Abacus IT AS 3.9%, while Logiq AS reached 34.8%. On net margin, Epinova's 10.2% compares with a peer median of 9.3%.

That comparison matters for the tension. Epinova is not an outlier that can afford to run thin because it prints money. It is a solidly average earner that grew quickly and paid out what it earned. The margin improvement in 2025, up 3.1 pp at operating level, is real, but it brought the company level with the peer median rather than beyond it.

The timing adds context. In October 2026 the Norwegian business register, Brønnøysundregistrene, recorded a change of control at Epinova, followed by a new daglig leder (the Norwegian equivalent of a managing director), a new chair and several new board members. A new owner takes over a company with a strong revenue trend and a balance sheet that holds almost no retained profit from the latest year. Whether the new owners keep the payout policy or leave profit in the business is the decision that will shape the next few years. The accounts for 2025 cannot answer that.

The check for your own company

If your company has grown for several years in a row, run one simple comparison. Take revenue at the start and the end of the period, and do the same for equity and for cash. Work out the growth of each. If revenue grew much faster than both, write down who financed the difference. Then open the balance sheet and look at what grew alongside revenue: receivables, unbilled work, short-term debt, taxes and holiday pay owed.

The second step is a question for your finance team: of the profit we made over these years, how much is still in the company? Ask for a short table: net profit per year, dividends or group contributions paid, and the resulting change in equity. In a services business, also ask how many days of payroll the cash balance would cover if a large client paid late. At Epinova, cash of NOK 5.4m on revenue of NOK 240m is a modest buffer for a company whose main cost is salaries paid every month.

Growth that is not followed by cash or equity is still growth. It is simply financed by someone else: creditors, staff waiting for holiday pay, the tax office until the due date. Knowing which of them is carrying your growth is cheaper before a slow quarter than during one.

Epinova has done the hard part of running a consultancy: it kept winning work, year after year, and earned a margin in line with its trade. It also handed out nearly all of the result, so the balance sheet of a company that grew strongly looks much like that of one that stood still. I would watch the equity line in the first accounts under the new owners, because that is where they will show whether the profit stays.