HELSINKI: Nokia, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker, said Thursday that it narrowed its losses in the second quarter on the back of strong demand for the next generation of mobile phone networks and it is sticking to its forecasts for the full year.
Nokia said in a statement that it booked a net loss of 193 million euros ($215 million) in the period from April to June, compared with a loss of 271 million euros a year earlier.
Revenues grew by 8.2 percent to 5.7 billion euros, beating analysts' expectations.
At an underlying or operating level, the second-quarter loss shrank to 57 million euros from 221 million euros in the corresponding period a year earlier.
"Nokia delivered a strong second quarter, driven by 5G demand," chief executive Rajeev Suri said.
"In the quarter, we saw good year-on-year growth, meaningful improvements in profitability, robust progress in our strategic expansion areas of Software and Enterprise and excellent momentum in our IP Routing business," he continued.
"We also continued to enhance our position in 5G, and now have 45 commercial 5G deals and nine live networks."
Given its second-quarter performance, "we are confirming our full-year 2019 guidance," the CEO said.
Nokia is targeting an operating margin -- which measures underlying profit as a proportion of sales -- of between nine and 12 percent for 2019 and then a range of 12-16 percent in 2020.
Nevertheless, "risks remain in the year, including execution demands in the second half, trade-related uncertainty and challenges in the China market," Suri cautioned.
Nokia is concerned about fallout from trade disputes between the US and other economic powers, such as China and the EU.
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