Finland's Nokia on Thursday reported stronger-than-expected profitability at its core networks business in the third quarter and raised the unit's full-year outlook on the back of major network roll-outs in North America and China.
The network unit showed a core operating profit margin of 13.5 per cent, up from 11.0 percent in the second quarter and topping analysts' average expectation of 9.9 per cent in Reuters poll.
Nokia said it now expects the networks unit's full-year operating margin to be slightly above 11 per cent, compared with its previous forecast of at or slightly above the higher end of a range of 5 to 10 per cent.
Nokia's total underlying operating profit for the July-September period rose as much as 32 per cent from the previous quarter to 457 million euros ($578 million). Analysts had expected an operating profit of 359 million euros.
Nokia in April closed the deal to sell its former flagship phone business to Microsoft, leaving it with the network equipment unit, navigation technology business and a smartphone patent portfolio.