Nokia delivers better than expected profit in 2021

The Finnish communications network conglomerate Nokia announced on Thursday that its operating profit for the full year 2021 rose by a third to 2,775 million euros, reported Xinhua.

Net sales were 22.2 billion euros for the entire year. In the greater China region, net sales in 2021 gained two percent year-on-year to 1,545 million euros, while the number dropped seven percent to 2,562 million euros in the Asia Pacific.

The company's Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of 0.08 euro per share. The company stopped paying dividends in the summer of 2019 due to its difficulties at the time.

Nokia's last year went better than expected at the beginning of 2021. The implementation of the new strategy has progressed really well, Atte Riikola, an analyst at Inderes, was quoted by national broadcaster Yle.

In another analysis, Petri Sajari of a Finnish language leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat noted that Nokia's profit has now recovered from problems Nokia encountered after purchasing its French competitor Alcatel-Lucent in 2015.

Pekka Lundmark, the CEO of Nokia, said Nokia targets an operating margin of 11-13.5 percent in 2022, and in 2023 hopes to achieve at least 14 percent.

The growth comes mainly from the 5G market, which Nokia entered behind. According to Lundmark, investments in product development have been successful.

"The 5G market will continue for several years, and there will be several waves of development," said Lundmark.