Nokia announces Q3 2020 financial results and 1st phase of its new strategy

This morning Nokia published the financial report for the third quarter of 2020 and for the first 9 months (Q1-Q3) of the year, alongside a new strategy making changes to operating structure and more.

The new strategy related announcement is just Phase 1 of the plan new CEO Pekka Lundmark has for Nokia, with Phase 2 and Phase 3 expected to be announced in December 2020 and March 2021. The new structure splits Nokia’s business into four groups: Mobile Networks, IP and Fixed Networks, Cloud and Network Services and Nokia Technologies. The goal of the new structure is to improve the focus each of the group has on its targeted audience, with the emphasis of moving to the fast-growing network-as-a-service market. You can find the details about this phase here.

In Q3 2020, Nokia reported revenue of 5.294 billion euro, which is a 7% decline compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, profit increased from 87 million euro in Q3 2019 to 203 million euro last quarter. Nokia’s earnings per share where 0.05 euro, missing analysts’ expectation of 0.07 euro.

The lower sales were primarily driven by lower sales in services within Mobile Access. Nokia also adjusted, more precisely lowered their earnings per share (EPS) expectations for 2020 from 0.25 euro to 0.23 euro, with the operating margin going down from 9.5% to 9%.

I was particularly interested in finding some info about the recent Google Cloud migration and the investment in HMD Global, the maker of Nokia phones. While I didn’t manage to find info about the cloud migration, the document says that Nokia’s investment in HMD is a loan conversion worth 63 million euro. Meaning, Nokia loaned HMD Global 63 million euro in 2019, and during summer converted that loan to shares, as far as I can read from the report.

You can check the press release here or the report in PDF here.