Reporting little impact from the Covid-19 pandemic so far, Finnish tech giant Nokia announced strong sales in the January-March period.
Operating profit rose to 116 million euros, compared to a loss of 59 million during the same period of last year. However, net sales were down by two percent to just under five billion euros.
"Nokia’s solid first quarter results showed broad year-on-year profitability improvements as our transformation and product cost reduction efforts started to take hold," CEO Rajeev Suri said in a statement on Thursday morning.
Suri is now in the last full quarter of his term, as he is to be replaced by current Fortum CEO Pekka Lundmark on 1 September amid problems with the company's development of crucial 5G mobile phone technology.
On Thursday the company reported that its "5G deal momentum continues, with 70 commercial deals and 21 live networks" and higher investments in 5G research and development (R&D).
Covid uncertainties
Suri said that due to coronavirus uncertainties, the company is focusing on ensuring it has a strong cash position.
In the first three months of the year, he said that the firm experienced "a top line impact from Covid-19 issues of approximately 200 million euros, largely the result of supply issues associated with disruptions in China".
Nokia is adjusting its outlook for the rest of the year to reflect the increased risks and uncertainty linked to the pandemic, and expects the majority of this impact to be in the second quarter, he said, adding that [we] "believe that our industry is fairly resilient to the crisis, although not immune".
Some R&D projects ahead of schedule as staff works from home
While there was no decline in demand in the first quarter, in future "an increase in supply and delivery challenges in a number of countries is possible and some customers may reassess their spending plans," he said.
On the positive side, Suri noted that while most R&D employees are working from home, there had been no delays "and, in fact, some key software releases are proceeding ahead of schedule".
Nokia was the most heavily traded share on the Helsinki Stock Exchange after the opening bell on Thursday, with its price rising nearly three percent.