Nokia saw its Irish business deteriorate "significantly" in the year to December 31st 2013, as the Finnish technology company was hit by lower mobile phone sales and reduced consumer spending.
Turnover fell by 50 per cent to €27.6 million but pre-tax profits held up, growing by 15 per cent to €517,000. A dividend of €11.5m was made during the year. Employee figures were slashed by 30 per cent, down from 935 to 654.
“Our mobile phone sales were affected by competitive industry dynamics, including intense smartphone competition at increasingly lower price points and intense competition at the lower end of our product portfolio,” the Finnish company said.
Nokia sold its struggling handset business in April to Microsoft in a €5.6 billion deal that transformed it into an almost pure play network equipment maker.As part of this deal, Nokia Ireland, and its 648 employees, were transferred to Microsoft Mobile Ltd. While it is now part of Microsoft, Nokia's Irish operations will continue to trade under the Nokia Ireland name for the "immediate future". The company expects its devices to be "significantly enhanced" during 2014 through the release of a number of "innovative and cutting edge products".
Nokia did not sell its location and commerce (L&C) and advanced technology businesses, known under the brand HERE, to Microsoft, so these operations will no longer have a relationship with Nokia Ireland.
Meanwhile at a global level Nokia, which is holding its first capital markets day in five years today, said it has lifted its long-term profitability target after meeting strong demand for faster 4G networks this year, and said it also expected the business to grow in 2015.
The company, which ranks third in the global network-equipment market after Ericsson and Huawei Technologies, said it now targets long-term networks operating margin in the range of 8 and 11 per cent, compared to its previous target of 5 to 10 per cent.
Nokia also gave an outlook for 2015, saying it expects its networks sales to grow year-on-year with its operating margin in line with the new long-term target.
(Additional reporting Reuters)
