The Finnish communications network conglomerate, Nokia, on Thursday announced that its operating profit for the full year 2021, rose by a third to €2,775 million ($3,135 million).
It said the net sales were €22.2 billion for the entire year.
In the greater China region, net sales in 2021 gained two per cent year on year to €1,545 million, while the number dropped by seven per cent to €2,562 million in the Asia Pacific.
The company’s Board of Directors proposed to the Annual General Meeting, a dividend of 0.08 euro per share.
However, 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 newspaper Helsingin Sanomat noted that Nokia’s profit had now recovered from problems Nokia encountered after purchasing its French competitor Alcatel-Lucent in 2015.
Pekka Lundmark, CEO of Nokia, said Nokia targets an operating margin of 11 to 13.5 per cent in 2022, and in 2023, hopes to achieve at least 14 per cent.
Meanwhile, the growth came 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. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars)
