HELSINKI, FINLAND – Finnish telecom equipment giant Nokia on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue and profit last year, with more growth expected in 2023 as the company competes in the global 5G battle.
Net profit soared to US$4.7 billion (4.3 billion euros) in 2022, a 159-percent jump from the previous year.
Annual net sales grew 12 percent to US$27.1 billion (24.9 billion euros) – higher than forecast by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
“We said at the start of 2022 that it would be a year of acceleration and we delivered what we promised,” Nokia chief executive Pekka Lundmark said.
The company’s four-quarter net profit surged to $3.4 billion (3.15 billion euros), more than four times higher than in the same period in 2021.
“If we look at Q4 results it was better than expected. (The) reason behind the surprise was that the network infrastructure had a very strong performance,” Atte Riikola, an analyst at Inderes, told AFP.
Swedish rival Ericsson failed to meet profit expectations last week and warned of tough times ahead, but Nokia posted an optimistic outlook for this year.
While “mindful of the uncertain economic outlook,” Lundmark said that “demand remains robust” in 2023 and he expects “another year of growth”.
“We are targeting full year net sales of between $27.1 billion and $28.8 billion which implies between 2 percent and 8 percent growth,” he said.
Nokia is engaged in a major competition to install 5G networks around the world, along with its main competitors, Ericsson and Chinese giant Huawei.
