Ericsson Q3 revenue up 9%, operating income dips 7%

Telecom network vendor Ericsson today said its third quarter 2014 revenue rose 9 percent to SEK 57.6 billion or $7.94 billion, while operating income dipped 7 percent to SEK 3.9 billion or $537 million.

The sales growth was mainly driven by the Middle East, China, India and Russia, but was partly offset by lower sales in North America.

Ericsson India

Ericsson India posted 56 percent year-on-year increase and 22 percent quarterly increase in Q3 2014 revenues to SEK 2 billion. Ericsson India said SEK 1.1 billion revenue came from networks, SEK 0.7 billion from Global Services and 0.2 billion from Support Solutions in the third quarter.

Since end of last year, sales in India has recovered, mainly driven by an increase in operator Capex spending in response to greater data uptake. The growth in Support Solutions is driven by OSS and BSS and TV & Media, said Ericsson.

Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said: “We are executing on 4G/LTE contracts in Mainland China and Taiwan and improving sales in Japan. Furthermore, the investment climate in India continues to improve. Sales in parts of Europe, mainly UK and Germany, showed growth year-over-year while the development in southern Europe continued to be weak.”

Hans Vestberg

For comparison, Nokia Networks, one of the main rivals of Ericsson, posted 13 percent increase in Q3 2014 revenue fuelled by 4G-driven mobile broadband roll outs in North America and Greater China.

Chinese telecom network vendor ZTE on Thursday said its Q3 revenue grew 24 percent, while net profit surged 191 percent. The growth was fuelled by 4G and smartphone business.

Interestingly, three telecom network vendors Ericsson, Nokia Networks and ZTE improved their revenue streams due to their strong presence in mobile broadband.

Ericsson revenue 2014

Ericsson revenue highlights

Ericsson said it posted 3 percent dip in North America revenue, 11 percent increase in Latin America and 38 percent surge in the Middle East.

The mobile equipment supplier generated SEK 30 billion revenue from networks, SEK 24.5 billion from Global Services and SEK 3.1 billion from Support Solutions.

Baburajan K
[email protected]