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Nokia sees sluggish quarter
HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- Nokia, the powerhouse behind the global mobile phone revolution, posted on Thursday better-than-expected earnings but warned "challenging" conditions would dent sales. The Espoo-based company, which issued six sales warnings last year, said it still expects industry-wide mobile phone growth of 10 percent this year. But first-quarter sales for Nokia Mobile Phones in 2003 are estimated to grow by 0-9 percent and by "slightly less" for the whole group last year, the company said. Nokia forecast first-quarter pro forma earnings per share of 0.15-0.19 euros, compared with 0.19 euros in the same first quarter in 2002. Nokia and its rivals -- like Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung -- have been betting new camera and colour screen phones will revive the stagnant market. Mobile phone sales fell in 2001 for the first time in more than two decades and sales rose 5 percent to about 405 million units, according to Nokia. Consumers have been reluctant to splash out on new phones, with little in the way of new technology and the poor performance of Web-enabled phones. And as telecom operators continue to curtail spending on infrastructure, Nokia expects the market to decline 5 to 10 percent in 2003. Net income doubled to 1.04 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from 450 million euros in the year-earlier period Earnings, excluding one-time costs, rose 8 percent to 1.24 billion. Earnings per share, excluding one-time items, came in at 0.26 euros in the fourth-quarter, up from 0.24 euros. Nokia had predicted earnings per share in the October to December period would fall within an indicated range of 0.23 to 0.25 euros. Nokia said sales rose 1 percent to 8.8 billion euros, at the bottom end of the previously stated target of between 8.8 billion and 9 billion euros
"Nokia's top line was inline with expectations whilst its fourth-quarter EPS was a nice surprise driven by margin growth," Thomas Langer, a telecoms equipment analyst at WestLB Panmure, told Reuters. "First-quarter EPS guidance was disappointing, and it is bad news that it see its networks equipment market falling 5 to 10 percent in 2003." Nokia's (NOK) stock, which has lost about half of their value in the last year, rose 1.1 percent to 14.46 euros in midday trading in Helsinki. Reuters contributed to this report.
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