Nokia saw its Q4 2015 profit boosted by the sale of its Here mapping business, as the company begins the tough task of integrating its operations with Alcatel-Lucent.

The company updated on where it is looking for “synergies” with the company it gained control of earlier this year, which includes “streamlining of overlapping products and services, particularly within the Mobile Networks business group”.

It is also looking to rationalise its regional and sales organisations, and cut overheads in areas such as manufacturing, supply chain, real estate and IT.

“Our work as a combined company has gotten off to a strong start. Teams are preparing joint bids, we are working closely with our customers to ensure we can make fast and effective decisions about overlapping areas of our portfolio, and we are on target to deliver on our previously announced synergy savings,” Rajeev Suri, president and CEO, said.

But, to the chagrin of some investors, the company also said that due to the recent Alcatel-Lucent transaction, it “believes it is not appropriate to provide an annual outlook for the new combined Networks business” until its Q1 results.

It is expecting a “flattish capex environment in 2016 for our overall addressable market”, with a declining wireless infrastructure market – including a greater than normal seasonal decline in Q1.

Profit
The company announced a profit for the quarter to 31 December 2015 of €1.79 billion, compared with a prior-year profit of €443 million, on revenue of €3.61 billion, up 3 per cent. At constant currency, sales would have declined by 3 per cent.

The bottom line was bolstered by a €1.29 billion gain from discontinued operations, primarily related to the sale of Here in the quarter. Profit from continuing operations was €499 million, up 54 per cent year-on-year.

“2015 was another year of dramatic transformation for Nokia and I am pleased that in the midst of all this change we were able to close the year with solid performances at both Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies,” Suri said.

In its Networks unit, operating profit (a non-IFRS measure) was essentially flat at €468 million on revenue of €3.2 billion, down 5 per cent. The decrease in revenue was attributed to lower sales in both Mobile Broadband and Global Services, and a one-off intellectual property gain made in Q4 2014.

Operating profit for Nokia Technologies grew by 318 per cent to €322 million, on sales which increased 170 per cent to €403 million. The company said that this was “primarily related to the growth in net sales resulting from a settled arbitration” – with Samsung.