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Nokia, based in Finland, announced fourth-quarter adjusted operating profit and sales that exceeded expectations on Thursday. The growth was driven by increased demand for telecom equipment from North American and Indian mobile operators. The company expressed optimism about its prospects for 2025.

Nokia's telecom equipment shares rose by 3% at 0840 GMT, outperforming Europe's STOXX 600 index, which saw a 0.4% increase.

Quarterly net sales for Nokia surged by 10% to 5.98 billion euros ($6.2 billion), surpassing analyst predictions of 5.74 billion euros from an LSEG survey.

The company credited the 17% increase in sales within its network infrastructure division to a strong rebound in demand from communication service providers, particularly in North America.

CEO Pekka Lundmark highlighted the company's observation that the North American market typically responds first to market shifts, both positive and negative. He anticipates ongoing positive trends through 2025.

Nokia forecasts annual profits ranging from 1.9 billion euros to 2.4 billion euros, differing slightly from the 2.13 billion euros estimate on LSEG Workspace.

Nokia and its Scandinavian competitor Ericsson have both experienced substantial growth in North America following a recovery in demand after a period of weakness. Demand from Indian customers, which had declined significantly post-considerable growth in 2023, is now rebounding.

In order to leverage the artificial intelligence upsurge, Nokia acquired Infinera for $2.3 billion last year to capitalize on the significant investments flowing into data centers, including the $500 billion Stargate venture involving OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle.

Lundmark expressed enthusiasm about the potential market opportunities in all data centers, particularly with the anticipated success of the Stargate project.

The CEO now foresees the Infinera acquisition closing by the end of the first quarter, instead of the initial target of the first half of the year.

Earnings before interest and tax increased to 1.14 billion euros, surpassing the 960 million euros anticipated by analysts in the LSEG survey.

($1 = 0.9597 euros)