Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark was bullish in his outlook for 2023, stating the Finnish vendor is expecting another year of growth due to high demand, after it was buoyed by a rise in revenue in Q4 2022 on the back of gains across its business.

Net sales grew 16 per cent year-on-year to €7.4 billion, with its network infrastructure unit growing 14 per cent due to acceleration in optical networks and IP.

Mobile networks grew 3 per cent, due to a “meaningful shift in regional mix”, as business in India grew on the back of 5G rollouts, while cloud and network services grew 5 per cent.

The biggest revenue rise came in its technologies division, which grew 82 per cent as a “long-term licensee exercised an option”. Enterprise sales were also strong, growing 49 per cent.

Net profit grew 364 per cent to €3.2 billion.

Lundmark hailed the company for successfully “navigating geopolitical, economic and supply challenges” to execute its strategy and deliver “a strong full year performance”.

Outlook
Notably, Nokia’s outlook contrasts significantly from major rival Ericsson, which cautioned in its own Q4 results that it was expecting challenges in the first half of 2023 as operators tightened their belts in response to economic headwinds.

Lundmark said while Nokia was “mindful of the uncertain economic outlook, demand remains robust” and it was planning for another year of growth.

Nokia is targeting full year net sales of between €24.9 billion and €26.5 billion, which would represent growth of between 2 per and 8 per cent.