Nokia Corporation Financial Report for Q2 and Half Year 2021 Nokia Corporation
Half year report
29 July 2021 at 08:00 EET
Nokia Corporation Financial Report for Q2 and Half Year 2021
Strong first half, 2021 Outlook revised upwards
Top-line strength continued in Q2, with constant currency net sales up 9% year-on-year, driven by growth across all business groups, with particular strength in Network Infrastructure. Reported net sales increased 4%.
Important progress on our three-phased strategy. Mobile Networks strengthening its competitiveness with major product launch, including some industry leading features. Network Infrastructure continued to gain share in the first half.
Our new operating model is delivering clear accountability and financial discipline through the organization.
Comparable gross margin of 42.3% (reported 41.0%) in Q2, reflecting broad improvements, particularly in Mobile Networks, which benefitted from a one-time software deal and 5G growth.
Comparable operating margin of 12.8% (reported 9.1%) in Q2, with improvements across all business groups, also helped by the one-time software deal in Mobile Networks.
Q2 comparable diluted EPS of EUR 0.09; reported diluted EPS of EUR 0.06.
Generated positive free cash flow for the fifth quarter in a row; liquidity position remains solid with EUR 3.7bn net cash.
Strong performance in first half 2021 with 9% constant currency sales growth (reported net sales 4%) and comparable operating margin of 11.9% (reported 8.8%), driving increase in our full year Outlook although headwinds remain for the second half.
Considering our strong start to 2021, we revise our full year 2021 Outlook, including net sales expected to be EUR 21.7bn to 22.7bn (previously EUR 20.6bn to EUR 21.8bn) with comparable operating margin in the range of 10-12% (previously 7-10%).
This is a summary of the Nokia Corporation Financial Report for Q2 and Half Year 2021 published today. Nokia only publishes a summary of its financial reports in stock exchange releases. The summary focuses on Nokia Groups financial information as well as on Nokias outlook. The detailed, segment-level discussion will be available in the complete financial report hosted at www.nokia.com/financials. Investors should not solely rely on summaries of Nokias financial reports, but should also review the complete reports with tables.
PEKKA LUNDMARK, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ON Q2 2021 RESULTS
I am delighted that our strong start to 2021 continued in the second quarter. Our constant currency sales growth of 9%, combined with good cost control, enabled us to deliver a comparable operating margin of 12.8%. Even excluding a one-time software deal in Mobile Networks, we saw good underlying progress in operating margin. We are already seeing the benefits of our new operating model which helped us to deliver such a strong financial performance.
The highlight of the second quarter was the Mobile Networks launch of our new AirScale baseband and radio products with up to 75% better power efficiency helping to reduce our environmental footprint and the lightest 32TRX massive MIMO active antenna in the market. In Network Infrastructure we sustained double-digit growth and have a series of product launches ahead in the second half to further strengthen our differentiation. Cloud and Network Services is making good progress on its portfolio rebalancing and Nokia Technologies continues to scale with two licensing agreements with automotive manufacturers including Daimler.
Considering our robust start to 2021, we are revising upwards our full year Outlook. We now expect a comparable operating margin between 10-12% for full year 2021, compared to our previous range of 7-10%. We have executed faster than planned on our strategy in the first half which provides us with a good foundation for the full year. We still however expect to face the earlier communicated headwinds in the second half, particularly with market share loss and price erosion in North America. Therefore, we still expect our typical quarterly earnings seasonality to be less pronounced in 2021. In addition, we continue to accelerate R&D investments and monitor risks around component availability, considering the strong demand for our products.
Overall, I am very happy with the progress made in the first half. I want to thank our entire team for their hard work and commitment.
FINANCIAL RESULTS
EUR million (except for EPS in EUR) Q221 Q220 YoY change Constant currency YoY change Q1-Q221 Q1-Q220 YoY change Constant currency YoY change
Reported results
Net sales 5 313 5 092 4% 9% 10 389 10 005 4% 9%
Gross margin %1 41.0% 38.1% 290bps 39.5% 36.8% 270bps
Research and development expenses1 (1 063) (1 013) 5% (2 060) (2 019) 2%
Selling, general and administrative expenses1 (712) (709) 0% (1 360) (1 489) (9)%
Operating profit 484 170 185% 916 94 874%
Operating margin % 9.1% 3.3% 580bps 8.8% 0.9% 790bps
Profit/(loss) for the period 351 99 255% 614 (17)
EPS, diluted 0.06 0.02 200% 0.11 0.00
Net cash and current financial investments 3 688 1 550 138% 3 688 1 550 138%
Comparable results
Net sales 5 313 5 093 4% 9% 10 389 10 007 4% 9%
Gross margin % 42.3% 39.6% 270bps 40.3% 38.0% 230bps
Research and development expenses (1 011) (953) 6% (1 985) (1 928) 3%
Selling, general and administrative expenses (585) (590) (1)% (1 137) (1 262) (10)%
Operating profit 682 423 61% 1 234 539 129%
Operating margin % 12.8% 8.3% 450bps 11.9% 5.4% 650bps
Profit for the period 539 316 71% 914 348 163%
EPS, diluted 0.09 0.06 50% 0.16 0.06 167%
ROIC2 18.4
