Nokia Q2 profit to drop 24 per cent

Mobile phone maker Nokia will post a 24 per cent fall in second-quarter pre-tax profit to €1

Mobile phone maker Nokia will post a 24 per cent fall in second-quarter pre-tax profit to €1.09 billion compared to the same quarter last year, the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 17 analysts showed.

The median earnings per share estimate in the poll for the April-June period was €0.16, coming within the range of €0.15-0.17 - guidance Nokia gave on June 12th.

Analysts expect second-quarter net sales of €7.59 euros also in line with guidance from the world's largest mobile phone maker.

Analysts forecast a decline of 12.4 per cent in pre-tax profit in 2001 year-on-year while sales are expecting to grow a modest 12.9 percent.

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Full-year profit estimates were in a wide two-billion euro range for 2001, with the range widening to around three billion euros in 2002 and five billion in 2003. This reflected analysts uncertainty following Nokia's profit warning and a general slowdown felt in the mobile phone industry.

The continued weakening demand for mobile phones has led to a number of profit warnings for the second quarter from rivals as well as suppliers to Nokia like Elcoteq and JOT Automation.

Nokia is due to publish its second-quarter results on July 19th when it will also give guidance for its second half and full-year results.