Nokia reports sales and operating profit up in 2005

Nordic Business Report, Jan 26, 2006

NORDIC BUSINESS REPORT-26 January 2006-Nokia reports sales and operating profit up in 2005(C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

Finnish telecomms solutions provider Nokia reported on Thursday (26 January) an operating profit of EUR4.64bn on net sales of EUR34.2m for the financial year January-December 2005.

Both operating profit and net sales for the 12-month period increased, respectively from EUR4.33m and EUR29.4m, as compared to the financial year 2004.

Nokia mobile device volumes reached a record of 265 million units, resulting in an estimated market share of 33%, according to the company.

Mobile Phones net sales in 2005 increased by 12% to EUR20.8bn from EUR18.5bn in 2004, while operating profit decreased to EUR3.60bn from EUR3.77bn.

Multimedia net sales increased by 63% to EUR5.98bn from EUR3.77bn in 2004, and operating profit improved to EUR836m from EUR175m a year ago.

Enterprise Solutions net sales increased by 3% to EUR861m from EUR839m, while operating loss increased from EUR210m to EUR258m.

Networks net sales in 2005 increased by 2% to EUR6.56bn from EUR6.43bn in 2004, while operating profit decreased to EUR855m from EUR884m.

Earnings per share (EPS) in 2005 increased to EUR0.83 from EUR0.69 in 2004.

The company's board of directors would propose a dividend of EUR0.37 per share for 2005.

Nokia's operating profit in the quarter October-December 2005 decreased by 6% to EUR1.37bn from EUR1.45bn in the fourth quarter 2004. Net sales increased by 9% to EUR10.3bn from EUR9.46bn a year ago.

The company's fourth quarter mobile device volume increased by 27% to 84 million units, resulting in an estimated market share of 34%.

Jorma Ollila, CEO of Nokia, estimated that global mobile subscriptions had increased to 2.2 billion in 2005.

According to the CEO, Nokia estimates that the global mobile device market grew by 24% in 2005, to 795 million units for the full year. Nokia expected the overall mobile device market in 2006 to grow by more than 10% in volume and to a lesser extent in value.

At 12:37 (GMT 2) on the Helsinki Stock Exchange shares in Nokia were at EUR14.73, down by 2.58% from Wednesday (25 January), reported the Finnish news agency STT.

One euro (EUR) is worth approximately 0.68 British pounds (GBP).

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