2021
Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report
Creative power
4 Letter from the Founder and Executive Chair
5 Letter from the CEO
6 Group presentation
8 Bulk Fiber Networks
10 Bulk Industrial Real Estate
12 Bulk Data Centers
14 Sustainability
18 Board of Directors Report 2021
27 Consolidated financial statements 2021
74 Parent company financial statements 2021
90 Responsibility statement
Contents
3
Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021
2
Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021 Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021
4 5
Letter from the Founder and Executive Chair
Since the very beginning, Bulk has been built on
our values, Respect, Creative Power and Passion.
When we combine our values with our strategy of
creating scalable and sustainable infrastructure
solutions – something interesting happens.
The work gives a motivation to succeed beyond
personal success and it gives a greater sense of
purpose. This has helped our company to succeed
and attracted skilled and motivated people.
Our values give us a solid framework and shapes
our decisions. They also provide our customers
with a clear view of what they can expect from us.
I have always welcomed curiosity and discussions
about new opportunities to excel our company.
However, it is important that creative ideas do
not take away focus and we need to weed out
bad ideas and to turn the good ones into results.
Therefore, I have always found openness to be
an efcient process.
A business idea can be good or bad depending on
many factors – demand, timing, complexity, risk
factors that all determines its likelihood to succeed.
Bad ideas usually get resistance from the beginning
and can be quickly terminated, but with good ideas
the opposite happens. It usually attracts people into
conversations that gives valuable insight and intro-
ductions to others that helps to realize them.
This is what happened when Bulk went from one
business of industrial real estate and expanded into
data centers and ber networks. The idea to create
an extremely scalable digital infrastructure platform
in the Nordics with data centers, renewable power
and ber highways seemed very unusual at the time.
Today Bulk is placed in highly attractive sectors
with great demand, and we nd ourselves in the
center of the gravity for sustainable digital services
in the Nordics.
We often say, “Bulk needs to be bigger than itself”
as we wish to make an impact beyond our peers. Our
subsea ber routes to and from the Nordics is already
such an example. What started as an idea, has given
us valuable experience from working with some of the
most advanced companies in the business and new
creative ideas have evolved from it.
In October 2021, I visited the Canadian provinces of
Quebec and Newfoundland & Labrador. I wanted to
see for myself some of the World’s biggest renewable
energy production and test if a new subsea ber cable
could connect the two renewable giants in the World –
Atlantic Canada and the Nordics. I took a road-trip
of 1800 kilometres from Montreal to Happy Valley/
Goose Bay along the trans-Labrador highway. On
the way I met with Governments, local groups and
businesses to discuss the idea of a new trans-Atlantic
subsea cable called “Leif Erikson” from Norway to
Canada. So far, the project has received a lot of
support from stakeholders in Canada and on the
international arena, so we are ramping up the work.
Creating the rst trans-Atlantic subsea ber cable
running on 100% renewable energy and connecting
Canada and Norway, “the World’s biggest renewable
batteries”, might be an idea that will survive
the pandemic.
Letter from the CEO
Bulk is positioned for growth. In 2021 we have
strengthened our nancial muscles, recruited a
number of talented people and built an organizational
structure that is robust enough to handle the speed
and complexity that success going forward entails.
All three business areas experience tailwind from
global mega trends. Global e-commerce sales are
growing at a rate of close to 40 per cent per year,
making efcient logistics solutions even more
important than for traditional retail. Digital growth
continues in the double digits, and demand for
redundant, high capacity and secure data transmis-
sion, storage and processing fuels both our Fiber
Networks and Data Centers businesses.
At Bulk we have four overarching strategic priorities.
First, we will work hard every day to earn the right to
serve existing and new customers with scalable and
sustainable solutions. Customer success remains
our top priority.
Second, we continue to develop our structures
and way-of-working, so that all our businesses can
rapidly scale with limited complexity. The Bulk-way is
about combining great people with simple processes
and tools to get the job done with minimum comple-
xity. In 2021 I am especially proud of how we grew
our team of capable, driven and inspiring Bulkies.
Growing the organization with more than 20% during
a year of Covid and home ofce is remarkable.
Third, we will remain creative and opportunistic in our
investment approach to further add scalability to our
asset portfolio. In 2021 we expanded geographically
and we constantly look for new land and infrastructure
opportunities to grow our portfolio and our sustaina-
bility impact throughout the Nordic region.
Fourth, sustainability remains a fundamental part
of our vision and an inspiration for everything we
do. Not only in terms of enabling renewable energy
consumption for our Fiber Networks and Data
Center customers, but indeed in terms of making
new and innovative sustainability solutions in our
infrastructure and buildings themselves. Important
progress has been achieved in 2021 both with
respect to heat re-use at our data centers and solar
energy solutions to ensure renewable energy supply
for the buildings we develop.
Going forward, we are excited about the opportunities
to create positive impact at scale in all our business
areas. At the same time, we are humble about the
challenges and uncertainty we all face as a global
community. We will use our creative power, passion
and respect to everyday do our best to solve our
customers’ problems and to contribute to a more
sustainable future for us all.
Since the very beginning Bulk has
been built on our values respect,
creative power and passion.
First, we will work hard every day
to earn the right to serve existing
and new customers with scalable
and sustainable solutions. Customer
success remains our top priority.
Jon Gravråk
CEO
Peder Nærbø
Founder and Executive Chair
Creative power
Win the customer
Our key focus is to win the customer every day.
We are proud to have grown our customer base in
all three business areas, e.g. DSV Solutions chose
Bulk industrial Real Estate to build their logistics
facility in Vestby, and our rst customers went live
on the Havfrue transatlantic subsea ber system.
We have established strategic partnerships, e.g.
with DE-CIX, Europe’s leading Internet Exchange
(IX), who chose Bulk Data Centers for their Nordic
expansion strategy. To support our customer growth,
we have strengthened our customer facing organi-
zation, in particular in the data center business.
Scale the “Bulk Way”
Total book equity increased from NOK 1.7bn in
2020 to NOK 4.1bn in 2021. With this strong
platform and a maturing business, the company
structure was strengthened with three new EVPs
in early Q3: Nina Cathrin Hage as EVP Industrial
Real Estate from Solon Eiendom, Gisle M. Eckhoff
as EVP Data Centers from Digiplex, and Inger
Gløersen Folkeson as Group COO and EVP Fiber
Networks from Telenor. In Bulk, we continuously
improve core processes and capabilities, and
in 2021 we maintained our certications on ISO
9001, 14001, 22301 and 27001.
Create opportunity
We continue to invest in new land to create runways
for new opportunities, both in Norway and Denmark.
In Norway, Bulk Industrial Real Estate entered into
agreements at Langhus, Danebuåsen and Vestby,
to name a few. We also expanded our footprint
in Copenhagen on the back of existing buildings
and new zoned land opportunities. We continue
to work on digital infrastructure opportunities,
i.e. through new ber systems such as the new
Havsil cable from Kristiansand to Esbjerg, and
powered land opportunities.
Lead on sustainability
Bulk makes sustainability a business, and always
strives to be a frontrunner in the area. In January
2021, Stine Bjønnstu Holthe was announced as
our new Head of Sustainability. During the year,
we have established a fact-based baseline of our
climate footprint, and embarked on energy efciency
projects to reduce our climate footprint. Bulk shares
the sense of urgency of climate change, and we
live our vision:
Racing to bring sustainable infrastructure to a
global audience.
Group presentation
Bulk Infrastructure Group is a leading provider of sustainable digital infrastructure
in the Nordics. We believe in the value creation opportunity of enabling our
digital society to be fully sustainable.
Bulk Executive Management Team
Jon Gravråk - CEO
Bulk Industrial Real Estate
Nina Hage, EVP
Bulk Data Centers
Gisle M. Eckhoff, EVP
Bulk Fiber Networks
Inger Gløersen Folkeson, EVP
Gaute Krekling - CFO
Torbjørn T. Moe - CBDO
Inger Gløersen Folkeson - COO
Bulk Infrastructure Group AS is owned by Bulk Infrastructure Holding AS, which has the following ownership structure:
Key Figures (Consolidated)
MNOK 2021 2020 %
Revenues 365.7 431.4 -15.2%
Operating Prot 1,215.2 152.7 695.6%
Prot after tax 936.8 76.4 1126.1%
Equity Ratio (%) 43.8% 48.6% -4.9%
Number of employees 70 58 20.7%
Bulk Industrier AS 53%
BGO King HoldCo Sarl 17%
Geveran Trading Co Ltd 13%
Employees 5%
Other 12 %
7
Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021
6
Bulk Fiber Networks
Bulk Fiber Networks owns and controls dark fiber infrastructure with the purpose
of enabling the Nordics for large scale data processing. Our over 10,000 kilometer
of fiber infrastructure is modern with high capacity including both subsea and
terrestrial systems.
In 2021 Bulk Fiber Networks has continued
expanding its ber networks while simultaneously
planning for further expansion. The organization
was strengthened when Inger Gløersen Folkeson
was named as Group COO and EVP of Fiber
Networks in Bulk Infrastructure in June.
The successful landing of the Havsil subsea cable
from Hanstholm in Denmark to Kristiansand in
Norway was achieved ahead of time in September.
Havsil unlocks the shortest route from Norway
to continental Europe. The terrestrial route in
Denmark is nalized, running down Denmark’s
west coast, avoiding the more congested and
traditional city routings. The endpoints include
Bulk’s highly scalable N01 data center campus
in Kristiansand, Norway and the DK01 data
centre in Esbjerg, Denmark.
The Havsil cable was selected by Arelion (Former
Telia Carrier), supported by the Norwegian
Communications Authority (NKOM), as the new
main ber system for Norway’s international data
trafc. Key rationale was to create a new diverse
route that avoids going through Sweden, to ensure
high uptime and low latency. This is also in line
with Norway’s ambitions of becoming a European
central for data center investment as specied in
its National Data Center Strategy.
In 2021 our rst customers went live on the
Havfrue transatlantic subsea ber system.
The system connects the USA and Denmark
with branches to Ireland and Norway. Bulk is a
co-builder of the system together with Aqua
Comms, Facebook and Google.
Customers are now live on all segments of
the Inter-City Ring terrestrial ber system that
connects four of Norway’s largest cities: Oslo,
Kristiansand, Stavanger and Bergen. The Inter-
City Ring makes Bulk the natural partner for dark
ber to and through Norway, with a complete
service offering including multiple modern and
resilient telehousing, 24/7 Network Operations
Center (NOC) and remote hands services.
In 2021 a pre-study was completed for the
Leif Erikson subsea segment and successful
stakeholder meetings was held in Canada.
The Leif Erikson subsea system will connect
two of the main renewable giants in the world,
the Nordics and Atlantic Canada, in order to
grow sustainable digital infrastructure driven by
an abundance of renewable energy. The system
will also secure a true diverse route avoiding the
route similarities in other trans-Atlantic networks.
The Leif Erikson project was shortlisted for the
best ESG initiative at the Global Carrier Awards
at Capacity Europe in London in Q4 2021.
The global market for ber capacity continues to
grow quickly, driven by increased demand for low
latency, high capacity and high quality secure data
trafc. Bulk Fiber Networks’ attractive offering is
appreciated by customers worldwide.
Bulk’s ber networks unlock the Nordic region’s
sustainable data centers for customers globally.
Low latency, high capacity ber networks
ensure that customers no longer need to rely on
local data centers powered by non-renewable
energy sources. High performance ber cables
also contribute to the fast growth of video
conferencing, reducing unnecessary air travel
and thereby CO2 emissions. When selecting
suppliers, it is a requirement that their operations
are run sustainably. Bulk takes care to reduce
the environmental impact when ber routes are
planned both subsea and on land. Surveys are
done in advance to avoid interfering with spawning
grounds for sh and other sea animals.
Bulk ber map
A
t
l
a
n
t
i
c
o
c
e
a
n
HAVFRUE
HAVHINGSTEN
HAVKATT (in planning)
HAVSIL
INTERCITY RING
LEIF ERIKSON (in planning)
SKAGERRAK 4
Frankfurt
Paris
Amsterdam
London
Helsinki
Hamburg
Oslo
Blackpool
Dublin
Aberdeen
Stavanger
Esbjerg
Copenhagen
Malmo
Stockholm
Hanstholm
Kristiansand
Bergen
Newcastle
Trondheim
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Canada
New Jersey, USA
Tjele
Inger Gløersen Folkeson COO & EVP Bulk Fiber Networks
The HAVSIL system is the new express
route between Norway and continental
Europe, oering the shortest high-
capacity route in a sustainable way
9
Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021Bulk Infrastructure Group AS Annual Report 2021
8