Catégorie : Test & Mesure     21/07/2005

Ericsson : résultats en hausse au 2ème trimestre 2005

Ericsson annonce des résultats solides du 2ème trimestre et l’équipementier suédois prévoit une croissance continue du marché des radiocommunications mobiles.

Les chiffres ci-dessous sont en milliards de couronnes suédoises (1€ ~ 10,45 SEK) et la valeur entre parenthèse correspond à la valeur de la même période de l’exercice précédente :

Chiffre d'affaires 38,4 (32,6) +17,8%

Bénéfice net 5,8 (5,0) +16%

COMMENTAIRES DU PDG :

“We report yet another quarter of robust performance,” says Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. “Our employees’ impressive drive for operational excellence and responsiveness to customer needs continues to yield positive results. Technology leadership, long customer relationships and deep consumer understanding are key factors behind our leading position.

The activity level in emerging markets is accelerating, which means more people have access to communication services. In parallel, operators seek new ways of working to meet the global trends of increased tariff competition and convergence of technologies and services. We continue to focus on supporting our customers in reducing the total cost of network ownership and developing new business models. Our competitive technology and services offering is a distinct advantage in this environment.

The services area develops strongly and operators show growing interest in our offering, particularly in outsourcing of network operations, and the synergies we are able to leverage throughout the value chain. Hosting and content services are also in high demand as operators continue to develop their business to meet consumer needs,” concludes Carl-Henric Svanberg

MARKET AND BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

There is continued growth in the GSM market where emerging markets show particularly good development in both network coverage and capacity.

Tariff competition is intensifying in Western Europe. This stimulates both traffic growth and the evolution of new business models and services. In parallel, richer services and more complex technology has made total cost of network ownership, including operating expenses, an obvious priority for operators.

As a consequence, operator focus on the services area is increasing. In this environment, our services offering is a key ingredient in assisting operators to lower costs and offer rich content services. An important step in helping our customers meet consumer demands is the recently announced Napster agreement, which will enable operators to offer branded music download services efficiently.

The WCDMA rollout continues, and Cingular Wireless’ rapid buildout plan in the US is driving the industry forward. When complete, Cingular’s buildout will have contributed to doubling the installed WCDMA base outside of Japan. More attractive handsets with more competitive prices also contribute to the fast WCDMA network expansions.

Our successful HSDPA offering is proving to be a crucial part of operator considerations in timing WCDMA deployments. With HSDPA, operators will be able to offer their customers even richer services including music and film downloads, TV, and enterprise applications. Triple play, which brings together telephony, Internet and broadcast media, continues to be a focus for both mobile and fixed operators.

In parallel, operators are considering fixed/mobile convergence also as a way of reducing operating expenses. A key element in this development is the deployment of all-IP softswitch-based networks. Ericsson announced several strategic wins during the quarter in this area, of which BT’s 21st Century all-IP network was the most noteworthy.

Regional overview
Western Europe sales grew 7% year-over-year. Also this quarter, Italy and Spain showed strong development, and the region as a whole continues to benefit from ongoing 3G deployments and GSM capacity enhancements.

Central Europe, Middle East and Africa sales grew 27% year-over-year and was the largest region. The development was solid across the markets with particularly good development in Nigeria and Turkey. There is a continued strong GSM development as well as an increased focus on 3G.

Asia Pacific sales were up by 8% year-over-year. China and India showed particularly strong development. While operators are evaluating different 3G technologies and performing large-scale trials with WCDMA, they continue to invest in GSM capacity enhancements to accommodate the strong subscriber growth.

North American sales are recovering. Growth year-over-year of 31% indicates a market rebound following operator consolidation. The ongoing network rollout in the North American market is well under way and invoicing included equipment worth close to two billion Swedish crowns originally planned for the third quarter.

Latin America shows continued positive development, and sales grew by 28% year-over-year through strong GSM sales. Argentina and Brazil, in particular, contributed to the year-over-year growth.

Subscriber growth
During the quarter, four new WCDMA networks were commercially launched, bringing the total to 65. We are a supplier to 38 of these networks. The number of subscriptions grew from 21 million to more than 28 million during the quarter and WCDMA is now by far the fastest growing 3G technology. The number of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscriptions grew by two million and has reached 14 million.

We continue to see a steady increase in both subscribers and usage, which further contributes to the solid long-term industry growth. Net subscriber additions were more than 100 million in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, worldwide subscription penetration is 30%, with more than 1.9 billion total subscriptions, of which almost 1.5 billion are GSM.

OUTLOOK

SEGMENT RESULTS

Sales in Mobile Networks grew by 19% year-over-year. In constant currencies, sales grew 21% year-over-year and 18% for the six-month period.

In the evolution from GSM to WCDMA most customers are deploying networks that combine GSM and WCDMA. The growth in the GSM/WCDMA track was approximately 22% in the quarter. Of radio access sales, 54% was WCDMA/EDGE related. The strong subscriber growth continues and supports the growth in Mobile Networks sales.

Sales within Professional Services have developed favorably during the quarter and grew approximately 25% year-over-year. In constant currencies the growth was 27% year-over-year. Supporting the strong growth the number of employees in services grew by 1,500 in the quarter.