Nokia, the Finnish IT and technology corporation, announced that Tarun Chhabra will assume the role of country manager in India starting April 1, 2024. He will be taking over from Sanjay Malik, who is retiring on March 31, 2024. "India is such an important market for Nokia and I believe that, in this new role, I will be able to help our customers to benefit from Nokia's leading technology across our portfolio at a time when technology is playing a vital role than ever before in the lives of organizations, companies, individuals and societies", Chhabra said in a statement.
After Ericsson's underwhelming financial performance in 2023, Nokia disclosed a year-on-year drop of 8% in comparable revenues to €22.3 billion and a 24% decline in comparable operating profit to €2.38 billion. The company anticipates a further decrease in sales this year, largely attributed to a significant downturn in revenues from mobile network infrastructure.
Nokia is enduring a challenging period and aims to put 2023 behind it. The company had been feeling the pressure since the previous year as telecommunications firms, particularly the three major operators in the United States, scaled back their network investment budgets (with the exception of the two main carriers in India). Consequently, Nokia initiated a cost-cutting initiative, leading to the elimination of up to 14,000 positions as revenues dwindled.
In November, AT&T revealed its shift towards a predominantly single-vendor supplier approach for its radio access network (RAN), placing significant investments in Open RAN-enabled systems. Ericsson was entrusted with this responsibility, marking AT&T's embrace of Open RAN technology while Nokia grappled with disappointment over not being chosen for AT&T's RAN project.
As part of its earnings report, the company has released a rather bleak forecast for the upcoming year, particularly concerning its Mobile Networks division. In 2023, this division reported full-year revenues of $9.8 billion, marking a 5% decline in constant currency compared to 2022, with an operating profit margin of 7.4%, down from 8.8% in 2022. Nokia anticipates a further 10% to 15% decrease in revenues for the Mobile Networks division in 2024, projecting total revenues to range between $8.82 billion and $8.33 billion. Moreover, the division's operating profit margin is expected to decline to a range of 1% to 4%.