NSN reports drop in infrastructure sales

Nokia Siemens Networks has said that a reduction in infrastructure sales led to a 7% year on year drop in first quarter revenues. The company reported quarterly revenues of €2.9 billion, down from €3.1 billion from Q1 2012 and down from €3.8 billion in the final quarter of 2011.

Although the company said like for like comparisons were complicated, as the company completed its purchase of Motorola assets in April 2011, it saw revenues drop in all markets apart from North America in the first quarter of 2012 compared to 2011. It also saw a sequential drop from 4Q 2011 to 1Q 2012 that it said was due to seasonality in sales. The North American market grew 67% year on year for the quarter, reflecting the Motorola acquisition, but fell slightly on a sequential basis from the end of 2011 to the beginning of 2011.

In Europe, NSN generated €930 million in sales in Q1 2012, down 7% from just over a billion in Q1 2011 and down 27%  from €1.27 billion in 4Q 2011. The biggest drop off was in China, where sales were down 35%.

The company said it anticipated to take charges of €1 billion in 2012 as it continues to carry out its restructuring and cost reduction programme. The restructuring, announced in November 2011, is intended to realise operational savings of €1 billion by the end of 2013, compared to the end of 2011. The company also said that cash preservation is a priority, and it intends to be self-funding, with more cash on its books at the end of 2012 than it had in 2011.