Nortel Networks, the Canadian telecommunications group that employs 1,000 people in Dublin, Galway and Shannon, has reported bumper fourth-quarter results with after-tax profits soaring from $455 million in 1998 to $755 million in the three months to the end of last December. Sales in the quarter rose from $5.8 billion to just under $7 billion.

Nortel's chief executive officer, Mr John Roth, said the increase in earnings was driven by higher revenues and gross profits and a decrease in the tax rate. "We are extremely pleased with our strong growth in the fourth quarter. Our strong financial performance with carrier and service provider customers reflected our leadership position in creating the high-performance Internet," said Mr Roth.

For the full year, Nortel's sales increased 26 per cent to $22.2 billion with net income from operations soaring from $1.07 billion to $1.73 billion. When acquisition costs and one-time gains and charges are taken into account, Nortel incurred a net loss of $197 million.

"Overall, 1999 was a great year. We announced a record number of acquisitions, entered into more than 20 commitments for Internet backbone services globally, began the realignment of our manufacturing to leverage the capabilities of the outsourcing industry and committed to tripling our optical Internet manufacturing capacity," he said.