Nokia reported Q4 2021 net sales of EUR 6.414 billion, a decline of 5% yoy in constant currency. The company sai strong growth in Network Infrastructure of +10% offset by Mobile Networks at -16%. Gross margin was 39.5%. Profit for the period was EUR 731 million, down 7% yoy. EPS (diluted) was EUR 0.13. The company plans to re-instate a dividend as well as a share buyback program.
Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO of Nokia, states:
“All our business groups made significant progress this year to make us more competitive in all the markets in which we compete. Mobile Networks largely closed the gap to competition in 5G and improved its gross margin while continuing to step up R&D investments. Network Infrastructure extended its technology leadership with significant growth driven by Fixed Networks and Submarine Networks. Cloud and Network Services continued to rebalance its portfolio and saw encouraging growth in its key focus areas. Nokia Technologies made good progress expanding in areas such as automotive and consumer electronics.”
“The progress we have made with cash generation in the business has strengthened our balance sheet to the point we can look to reinstate shareholder distributions through both a dividend and share buyback program.”
“Nokia enters 2022 in a strong position with improved margins, faster than expected strategy execution and a high order backlog, although the global supply chain situation remains tight. We see opportunities in the 5G roll out and growing enterprise market. Accordingly, we expect 2022 to bring another year of sales growth and we are targeting a comparable operating margin of 11-13.5% in 2022.”
“Considering how quickly we have executed on our strategy, we are now introducing new long-term targets. We still expect to deliver progress in 2023 but we want to emphasize that is not the end of our ambition. Our long-term target is to grow faster than the market and to achieve a comparable operating margin of at least 14%. The pace of delivery will depend on both the market environment and decisions we may make on R&D investments to secure our long-term competitiveness and sustainable profitability.”
