telecommunications & networks

The French-US telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent has improved its profitability in the fourth quarter, a surprising degree.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen
Photo: Alcatel-Lucent

Despite strong sales decline as expected scored the high pressure of competition ailing company’s bottom line profits of 868 million euros and estimated that more than five times as much as analysts. For the year, the company managed for the first time since the merger in 2006 a surplus, like Alcatel Lucent, Paris on Friday announced . A dividend the company will not pay.

the stockbrokers that did not matter. They celebrated the first annual profit for the current year and the prospect of the higher margin. The leading index in the French CAC-40 traded shares gained 16.60 percent last morning at € 1.749, while the index lost 0.7 percent.

Even if the gaze is in the current year only to a limited extent, Peile Alcatel Lucent 2012 adjusted operating margin greater than last year, said chief executive Ben Verwaayen. The relevant figure for the company last year reached 3.9 percent, slightly below the target of four percent.

sales collapsed in the final quarter by nearly 13 percent to 4.15 billion euros. The sharp decline in revenues, the company mainly due to the slump in business with the equipment of wireless networks. After a long investment phase screwed the customers back on their spending. In addition, suffered from the service business.

On Thursday

unions reported that Alcatel Lucent 1800 jobs in Europe wanted. The company also commented on Friday, not at first.

As the competitors Ericsson and Nokia Siemens networks is the US-French engineering giant network under heavy pressure to reduce costs. In the West, keeping the operator returns to investment, also cheaper Chinese competitors are using technology on the rise. (Dpa / tc)