Slower Chinese growth
Ericsson’s turnover did grow 3 % to 59.2 billion Swedish krona (6.3 billion euro), but that was not enough to reach analysts’ expectations at 60.7 billion Swedish krona (6.45 billion euro). Like-for-like turnover tumbled 9 %, mainly because of weaker Chinese and European sales.
The slower growth is in part because of the slower-than-expected pick-up of 4G networks, particularly in China. That is why Chinese turnover plummeted 20 % compared to a year ago.
Operational profit also grew, from 3.9 billion krona (415 million euro) to 5.1 billion krona (542 million euro), but that was also not enough to meet analysts’ expectations. Ericsson’s net profit added another 500 million krona compared to last year, up to 3.1 billion krona (329 million euro) because the company managed to lower costs.
