Nokia reports Q1 2005 net sales of EUR 7.4 billion and EPS EUR 0.19

Nokia reports Q1 2005 net sales of EUR 7.4 billion and EPS EUR 0.19

*Q1 2005 special items
- Nokia’s financial income in Q1 2005 included a positive EUR 40 million item, representing a gain on the sale of a portion of the France Telecom bond.
- The negative impact of restructuring in Multimedia in Q1 2005 was EUR 15 million, which was significantly less than the indicated range of EUR 60 to EUR 80 million, as previously guided.
- The net impact of these special items on Q1 EPS, basic and diluted, was negligible.
** New IFRS Standards
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were subject to changes as of January 1, 2005. Nokia’s Q1 and full-year 2004 financial accounts now reflect the retrospective implementation of IFRS 2 and IAS 39R. More information and accompanying tables can be found from page 15 of this document.

JORMA OLLILA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO:
I was extremely satisfied with Nokia’s overall first-quarter performance, which brought double-digit growth at the top line, including year-on-year sales growth for each of our four business groups. First-quarter operating cash flow was strong at EUR 1.3 billion, backed by good overall profitability.

According to Nokia estimates, year-on-year volume growth for the mobile device market in the first quarter came in ahead of expectations at 20%, with Nokia growing at about the same pace as the market. Despite some weakness in 3G devices at the industry level, this marked a strong start for the year and prompted an upward revision of our 2005 annual market volume estimate to about 740 million units.

In Nokia’s own mobile device business, year-on-year volume growth during the quarter was fastest in China, which became our number one single market, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe/Middle East/Africa. However, volume declines in North America and Latin America were disappointing. In Asia, particularly China, we have focused on expanding our distribution and developing a competitive and quality product portfolio. In the Americas, we will continue working hard to strengthen and broaden our product offering.

I was really pleased to see solid average selling prices of 110 euro for the quarter in our mobile device business. This was supported by a greater share of high-end product sales from our multimedia and enterprise businesses.

Read the complete Press Release