Nokia Cuts Guidance After Seeing EUR200 Million Sales Hit From Coronavirus

By Dominic Chopping

Nokia Corp. (NOK) on Thursday cut full-year guidance amid uncertainty caused by coronavirus and said the pandemic hit sales in the first quarter by 200 million euros ($217 million).

The hit to sales was mainly due to supply-chain issues and these sales are expected to be booked later in the year, rather than being lost altogether, it said.

The company's adjusted net profit for the three-month period ended Mar. 31 was 32 million euros ($34.7 million), compared with a loss of EUR118 million a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a net profit of EUR37 million.

On a nonadjusted basis, Nokia reported a net loss of EUR117 million against a loss of EUR186 million expected.

Sales for the quarter fell 2.4% to EUR4.91 billion, against EUR5.15 billion expected.

The company now expects 2020 adjusted earnings per share of EUR0.23 plus or minus 5 cents, from an earlier estimate of EUR0.25, with an adjusted operating margin of 9.0% plus or minus 1.5 percentage points from 9.5% previously.

"We expect the majority of this Covid-19 impact to be in 2Q and believe that our industry is fairly resilient to the crisis, although not immune," said Chief Executive Rajeev Suri.

"We did not see a decline in demand in the first quarter. As the COVID-19 situation develops, however, an increase in supply and delivery challenges in a number of countries is possible and some customers may reassess their spending plans," he said.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2020 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)

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