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Technology Stocks : Nokia Corp. (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric L who wrote (2565)	10/19/2002 11:16:31 AM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9255

re: Dow Jones on Jorma Ollila's Q3 CC Statements >> Nokia CEO Sees 3G Systems Revenue Over EUR500 Million In 4th Quarter Stockholm Dow Jones October 17, 2001 Nokia Corp. expects both its phone unit and its networks unit to show year-on-year sales growth of 2.0% to 5.0% in the fourth quarter, Chief Executive Jorma Ollila said Thursday. Ollila said the closely-watched average selling price of Nokia's phones won't decline quarter-on-quarter and could increase in the fourth quarter, depending on how well its new, high-end phones sell during the holiday season. "ASPs (average selling prices) will not go down," he said. "Whether they will be stable or will go up, that remains to be seen." He said Nokia may have lost a slight amount of market share in China during the third quarter, but said its target of becoming that country's largest handset supplier remains. Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - News) is China's largest supplier now. Ollila said Nokia had also lost market share in the Americas during the period, particularly in Latin America. He said its share in the U.S. had also slipped, blaming the fact that Nokia's phones weren't included in many major service campaigns by operators. Ollila said Nokia, though, had been included "in a major way" in some campaigns that began in September. "It really does have an impact across the board, particularly in CDMA (code division multiple access)," a major network standard in the U.S., he said. Nokia reiterated Thursday that it expects around 400 million phones to be sold to consumers industrywide this year. "It's a solid figure," Ollila said, "but we don't see that it could rise significantly above that, from what we see this week." He said he was disappointed with the roughly 5% pro forma operating margin in Nokia's systems unit, but said the severity of the decline in demand for GSM equipment had caught it - like other suppliers - by surprise. Nokia said the margin should be largely unchanged in the fourth quarter. "I've said earlier that the 12% margin is something that I would be happy with in the down cycle, so we are not happy with what is going on," he said. He said the company would consider cutting costs in the unit, but doesn't want to cut costs so deeply that the division cannot react quickly when demand recovers. He said Nokia has no new plans for its cash pile. The company had around EUR8 billion in cash at the end of the quarter and a net cash position of roughly EUR7.3 billion. Ollila said the health of major economies would be a crucial influence on how quickly consumer demand for new color-screen phones and other high-end models develops. He said the arrival of some new CDMA phones should improve Nokia's standing in that market in the next several quarters. Improved CDMA sales are important if the company is to build its share of the global handset market significantly beyond 40%, he said. Ollila said Nokia expects to book more than EUR500 million in third-generation systems sales in the fourth quarter, including both single-mode and dual-mode equipment. The company had said earlier that it expects to book around EUR400 million in sales of dual-mode 3G equipment that works with both Global Systems for Mobile Communications and Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access phones. The sales-growth forecast for the networks unit implies a significant quarter- on-quarter increase in sales of GSM gear, Ollila acknowledged. He credited a stronger order book due to contracts with U.S. operators. << - Eric -