Finland based IT and telecommunications company Nokia Oyj (NOKIA) has revealed its first quarter results of the year for the three month period ended March 31. Despite the quarter being dominated by coronavirus pandemic, the tech company managed to generate some profit.
In the quarter, Nokia generated profit of 1 euro cent per share, a value relatively higher to what analysts had projected for the company. In a similar quarter last year, Nokia registered a loss of 2 euro cents.
Unfortunately, revenue in the quarter slummed by 2% to 4.9 billion euros, falling below the 5.1 billion euros estimated by analysts.
The company says the decline in revenue is due to disruption of supply in China emanating from breakout of coronavirus. According to Nokia, this disruption caused the company to lose in excess of 200 million euros ($217 million).
“We did not see a decline in demand in the first quarter. As the COVID-19 situation develops, however, an increase in supply and delivery challenges in a number of countries is possible and some customers may re-assess their spending plans,” said Nokia’s CEO, Rajeev Suri.
Nokia says it’s looking forward to make entry in the U.S to lay down infrastructure of 5G networks following fallout between the U.S and Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies.
U.S claimed Huawei was using its products and services to spy for the Chinese government therefore banning the firm from undertaking any 5G projects in the country.
Nokia has been experiencing a strong demand of 5G equipment therefore the company is betting on that to generate stronger results in the second quarter.
The CEO said they had won a 10% share of China Unicom’s 5G core network order making Nokia the foreign supplier in China Unicom for 5G core.
According to unverified media reports, there was a recent 5G radio contracts by Chinese telecom companies including China mobile and China Telcom. It is alleged Nokia failed to win any bid in the new contracts.
