Sony Ericsson's Net Rises 16%,Buoyed by New Product Sales
By MAGNUS HANSSON DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
October 18, 2005
STOCKHOLM -- Sony Ericsson Monday said net profit advanced 16% in the third quarter as new product launches, including the Walkman music phone, helped boost the mobile-phone maker's sales.
The company, a joint venture of Sweden's Telefon AB LM Ericsson and Japan's Sony Corp., said net profit rose to €104 million ($124.7 million) in the quarter from €90 million in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 22% to €2.06 billion from €1.68 billion.
Sony Ericsson sold 13.8 million mobile phones, up 29%, buoyed by the K750 camera phone and the high-end W800 Walkman handset.
Earlier in 2005, earnings had been hit as Sony Ericsson suffered from a lackluster range of handsets and higher spending to develop new models.
"This has been a good quarter for Sony Ericsson, proving that our strategy of expanding the product portfolio upward...is paying off," Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson, said in a statement.
In the period, Sony Ericsson's average selling price -- a key benchmark for financial analysts -- fell to around €149 from €157. The ASP recovered from the €137 mark seen in the first and second quarters of this year thanks to sales of the K750 and the W800.
The pretax profit margin of 7.3%, while down from a high of 8.1% a year earlier, still represented a recovery from the 5.4% seen in both the first and second quarters of 2005.
Sony Ericsson increased its market forecast for all of 2005 to over 760 million handsets sold, up from 720 million previously. Rival Samsung Electronics last week increased its 2005 prediction to the same level. |
