Nokia STORMS back into profit, FREE from phones and Windows

Nokia reported solid results on Thursday even after giving long-suffering shareholders a dividend and taking the hit of a one-time charge.

Profits (non-International Financial Reporting Standards*) rose to €353m on earnings of €3.3bn, up from €2.9bn a year ago.

With the Windows Phone albatross thrown to a reluctant new owner, Nokia is now three divisions: network equipment (Nokia Networks), mapping (HERE) and IPR licensing (Nokia Technologies), but with €2.6bn of income, Networks provides most of the meat.

Nokia Networks sales rose 13 per cent year on year, based on LTE sales into China and North America, the company said.

HERE grew 12 per cent, and IP licensing nine per cent to €152m; Microsoft is now a more important licensee.

The company paid out €1.372bn in dividends and recorded a goodwill charge of €1.2bn against HERE's profits, the latter reflecting a new evaluation of the division at €2bn.

The HERE charge reflected, "an adjustment to the HERE strategy and the related new long-range plan". Nokia also spent €220m buying back shares.

Nokia made a string of mapping acquisitions in the Noughties, the largest of which was Navteq for $8.1bn (€5.6bn at the time). The company defended its continuing investment in HERE, declaring that "we continue to believe we have an opportunity to create significant value with the HERE business, as connected cars become more pervasive and as enterprises deploy new location-services to improve their productivity and efficiency".

Despite all the charges, the company still has €5.4bn in cash and assets.

Microsoft bought Nokia’s mobile division in April for $7.2bn.

Full details here.®

* IFRS are designed as a common business language, hopefully making company accounts understandable and comparable across international boundaries.