Nokia Reports Strong Growth
By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press Writer
"Nokia's stock rebounded 25 percent Thursday after the wireless equipment maker released its quarterly update a week ahead of schedule, revealing a 40 percent jump in profits, a 50 percent gain in sales and a bullish outlook.
The surprisingly strong showing by the world's largest mobile phone producer came in sharp contrast to last week's dismal report from No. 2 Motorola and a series of warnings about weak demand at companies that make chips for cell phones.
Nokia, which itself rattled the markets back in July with a profit warning, said it released the results early in response to the recent turmoil in technology stocks.
``We wanted to give our earnings report to the market as early as possible,'' chief financial officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a radio interview. ``The markets have been very shaky and we wanted to put out the good news as soon as possible.''
The Finnish company earned 892 million euros ($751 million) for the July to September period, up from 638 million euros in last year's third quarter. Sales during the just-ended quarter totaled 7.6 billion euros ($6.4 billion), up from 5 billion a year earlier."
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"Nokia's key mobile phone division posted a better-than-expected 59 percent jump in sales to 5.46 billion euros ($4.6 billion). European sales led the increase, but Nokia also cited strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region.
The company didn't disclose its exact market share, but said its mobile phone sales again exceeded the growth rate of the overall market.
By contrast, Motorola warned last week that slowing growth in mobile phone sales would dampen earnings for the rest of this year and 2001.
Nokia, which has more than 60,000 employees worldwide, also estimated there will be about 1 billion cellular phone users by 2002.
The company, which had a net profit of $2.5 billion last year, is also a leading supplier of wireless network equipment to phone companies and other providers of communications services."
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