MADRID, 18 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Swedish manufacturer of telecommunications networks and equipment Ericsson obtained an attributable net profit of 1,516 million Swedish crowns (134 million euros) in the first three months of 2023, which represents a 48.4% drop compared to the result recorded by the company in the same period of the previous year.

The net sales of the Scandinavian multinational between January and March reached 62,553 million Swedish crowns (5,519 million euros), a figure 13.6% higher than Ericsson's turnover in the first three months of 2022.

Specifically, the Swedish company's network business increased its revenue by 4%, to 42,500 million crowns (3,750 million euros), while the area of ​​cloud and digital services increased its sales by 11%, to 13,400 million crowns (1,182 million euros) and income from the business of companies increased by 275%, up to 6,000 million crowns (529 million euros).

"Unsurprisingly, customers in early 5G markets have slowed down the pace of deployment a bit," Ericsson Chairman and CEO Borje Ekholm said, noting that the effect on sales is larger as some customers they have also reduced the high inventory levels built up in a limited supply environment.

"We expect this inventory adjustment to be mostly completed during the second quarter, but may extend into the third quarter," he added.

In this way, the executive has warned that the company continues to see "a hectic environment during 2023" and expects that, between April and June, operators will remain cautious with investments, while they continue to adjust inventories.

On the other hand, Ekholm highlighted that Ericsson has identified additional savings opportunities amounting to 2,000 million crowns (176 million euros), thus raising the cost reduction target for the whole to 11,000 million crowns (970 million euros). of the year.

In this sense, the multinational estimates that, given the greater scope and the more expensive programs in Europe, the restructuring expenses may amount to about 7,000 million crowns (618 million euros) in the year, including more than half of the impact in the second quarter of the year, while in 2024 restructuring charges are expected to normalize to around 0.5% of sales.