Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, October 20 (Xinhua)-- Nokia on Thursday reported lower-than-expected Q3 operating profit for 2022, even as the Finnish telecom equipment maker continued to benefit from strong demand for 5G network construction.

Nokia's third-quarter operating profit rose to 658 million euros (4.652 billion yuan) from 633 million euros (4.475 billion yuan) last year, but lagged behind the average estimate of 690.6 million euros of 10 analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Pekka Lundmark, Nokia's chief executive, said that while growing macro and geopolitical uncertainty could have an impact on capital spending by some customers, Nokia expected its market to grow on a fixed monetary basis in 2023.

In addition to growing demand from telecom customers in the US and Europe, Nokia and rival Ericsson have also won large contracts to launch 5G in the country from Indian telecom operators, CTOnews.com learned.

"given our recent success in new 5G contracts in India and other regions, and with strong growth expected in 2023, we believe we are firmly on the path of outpacing the market and making progress in achieving our long-term profit margin targets."

Compared with the same period last year, net sales at fixed exchange rates in the quarter increased by 6% to 6.24 billion euros (about 44.117 billion yuan), higher than the expected 6.06 billion euros (about 42.844 billion yuan).

Nokia said its comparable operating margin fell from 11.7% to 10.5% as the increased profitability of mobile networks and network infrastructure was offset by the time effect of Nokia technology's contract renewal.

Rival Ericsson also reported weaker-than-expected core earnings on Thursday.

Nokia shares have fallen about 15 per cent so far this year, outpacing Ericsson's 28 per cent decline and in line with European telecom shares (.SXKP), which fell an average of 15 per cent in 2022.

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