Nokia Q2 profit at 284mn euros; raises outlook for network biz

Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia today posted a higher operating profit at 284 million euros in April-June this year and said it expects net sales for the network business to grow in the second half of 2014.
Nokia, which sold its handset business to Microsoft in April for over USD 7.2 billion, said its operating profit stood at 12 million euros in the same period last year.
The operating profit is 17 per cent higher than 242 million euros in January-March 2014.
The results are on continuing operations basis.
Net sales declined 7 per cent to 2.9 billion euros in the said quarter from 3.1 billion euros in the comparable period last year. It was higher by 10 per cent when compared with January-March 2014 quarter when the same stood at 2.6 billion euros.

Commenting on the results, Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri, said: "Nokia's second quarter performance shows the strength of the company today. In Nokia Networks, our unique operating model has allowed us to deliver strong profitability while improving our topline trend."

He added that maintaining this balance will remain a "clear priority" in the second half of the year, when Networks (business) is expected to return to year-on-year growth.
"Our expectations for the full year 2014 have improved and we now expect full year underlying profitability for Networks to be at or slightly above our long term target range of 5-10 per cent," he said.

The April-June quarter was the first for India-born Rajeev Suri as the Chief Executive Officer. He was promoted to his current role in April from his previous role as networks unit head.
Networks business accounted for over 87 per cent of the company's net sales during the reported quarter.
HERE, the company's location services offering, saw sales flat at 232 million euros on y-o-y basis, while registering 11 per cent growth compared to Q1 2014.
Nokia Technologies also grew marginally to 147 million euros in the reported quarter from last year, while posting 12 per cent rise in net sales in Q1 2014 (131 million euros).

Nokia's net cash position at the end of June was 6.5 billion euros, up from 2.1 billion euros at the end of March (before the handset unit sale had closed), it said.