(News Bulletin 247) – Nokia on Thursday reported lower quarterly results despite an increase in turnover, driven in particular by its activity in India.

On a like-for-like basis, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker posted operating profit of 479 million euros for the first quarter, down 18% from the 583 million euros generated a year earlier.

However, its turnover increased by 10%, to more than 5.85 billion euros, thanks to a 13% growth in its net sales in the mobile networks in India.

The group explains that the dynamism of 5G deployment projects in the country has made it possible to compensate for other areas of weakness, such as the slowdown in investment by operators in North America.

Another reason for concern, its gross margin fell by three percentage points, to 37.7%, among other things due to a lower contribution from its intellectual property branch Nokia Technologies.

Its operating margin also fell, dropping 2.7 points to 8.2% over the first three months of the year.

In its press release, Nokia says despite everything confirms its annual objective of an operating margin of between 11.5% and 14%, on the basis of an expected turnover increase of 2% to 8% at exchange rates. constant, i.e. a forecast of between 24.6 and 26.2 billion euros.

The competitor of the Swedish Ericsson and the Chinese Huawei and ZTE also ensures that it continues to aim for a conversion rate of its operating profit into free cash flow of between 20% and 50%.

Following this publication, the action fell by 3.1% on Thursday in the first exchanges, signing the second largest drop in the pan-European Euro STOXX 50 index.

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