Nokia 2015 Annual Report Download - page 14
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Please find page 14 of the 2015 Nokia annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.12 NOKIA IN 2015
Letter from the
President and CEO
In 2015, we celebrated our
150th anniversary. In a sector
full of start-ups and companies
that come and go every
year, that is a remarkable
achievement. And, despite our
age, we are certainly showing
no signs of slowing down.
Our acquisition of Alcatel Lucent is an
industry-changing event and opens exciting
new opportunities for us and our customers.
The transaction makes nancial and strategic
sense on every level. It also does something
more: it enables us to pursue our vision
toexpand the human possibilities of the
connected world. In this rapidly approaching
world, where everyone and everything will be
connected, we are positioned both to do well
and do good.
The new Nokia comprises ve business
groups: Mobile Networks, Fixed Networks, IP/
Optical Networks, Applications & Analytics and
Nokia Technologies. These groups start from
a position of strength, including many number
one positions in our key market segments.
Further, these groups together give us
thebroad scope necessary to provide our
customers with smarter, more ecient and
more agile networks.
The acquisition of Alcatel Lucent, culminating
in our rst day of combined operations as
thenew Nokia on January 14, 2016, also
givesus a stronger position in many regions.
In North America we became the market
leader; in China we are the largest vendor
headquartered outside the country; in
Europe, Latin America and Middle East and
Africa we have roughly doubled our size.
Another critical development in 2015 was
thesale of HERE―our digital mapping and
location services business―to a German
automotive industry consortium in December.
HERE is a well-established business that
webelieve will go on to be very successful.
Our cash-generating strength and
commitment to creating shareholder value
was reected in our EUR 7 billion capital
structure optimization program, announced
inOctober, comprising EUR 4 billion in
shareholder distributions and EUR 3 billion
inde-leveraging.
These developments have had a
transformational eect on our company, yet
Iam particularly proud of the focus that our
employees demonstrated in 2015. Despite
asoft start to the year, and dicult market
conditions, our two continuing businesses
―Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies―
again demonstrated leadership in their
respective elds with solid nancial and
operational performances.
Business performance
In 2015, prot before tax from Continuing
operations increased more than 50% to
EUR1.5 billion versus 2014 on EUR 12.5 billion
in net sales, which were 6% above the
year-ago period.
Prot before tax from Continuing
operations in2015
€1.5bn
Capital structure optimization program
€7bn
Planned shareholder distributions
€4bn