Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia reported a reduction in its third-quarter losses of almost 57 percent on Thursday, as it launched a cost-savings programme in a bid to restore profitability. The company announced a net loss of 79 million euros between July and September, compared to 183 million euros for the same period last year.
Nokia also released details of a 700 million euros cost-savings programme between now and the end of 2020, of which 500 million is expected to come from operating expenses. The improved results, driven by a pickup in commercial 5G deployments in the US, saw Nokia reiterate its guidance to investors after a difficult start to the year.
"Nokia's third-quarter results validate our earlier view that conditions would improve in the second half of 2018," CEO Rajeev Suri said in a statement. "This was particularly evident in our excellent momentum in orders, growth across all five of our Networks business groups, and improved profitability," Suri said.
In a statement Nokia said its 700 million euro savings programme will look to cut costs through a wide range of measures. These include further investment in digitisation "to drive more automation and productivity", and "significant reductions in central support functions".
The group's turnover fell 1.0 percent in the third quarter to 5.46 billion euros, due to unfavourable exchange rates, but Nokia reduced its operating loss from 230 million euros to 54 million.