Nokia chair to step down, AI push supports Q4 profit

Finland’s Nokia said on Thursday, january 29, that longtime chair Sari Baldauf planned to step down and the telecom gear maker would propose Timo Ihamuotila as her successor, after a push into artificial intelligence helped it meet quarterly earnings expectations.

Shares of Nokia fell 6% in early Helsinki trading, among the worst performers on Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 index.

Baldauf, one of Nokia’s longest‑serving executives, has chaired the board since 2020 after returning to the company in 2018. Her earlier tenure from 1994 to 2005 coincided with Nokia’s rise as a global leader in the mobile phone market.

Ihamuotila, who already serves as vice chair, was Nokia’s chief financial officer between 2009 and 2016. He is set to leave Swiss group ABB by the end of 2026.

Nokia’s comparable operating profit fell 3% to 1.05 billion euros ($1.26 billion) in the fourth quarter, broadly in line with the average estimate of 1.01 billion euros from analysts polled by LSEG.

Nokia is carrying out one of its biggest restructuring drives since it sold its iconic mobile phone business more than a decade ago, banking on AI and data center demand to offset weak spending and contract losses in the 5G field.

Last year, it appointed former Intel executive Justin Hotard as its CEO to speed up the transition. Still, a profit warning tied to US import tariffs and a weaker dollar have hit the margins, mounting pressure for deeper cost cuts.

Fourth-quarter net sales reached 6.12 billion euros, also meeting analysts’ forecast.

Optical Networks led the growth with a 17% rise, as order intake stayed strong and book-to-bill ratio remained above one, driven by AI and cloud demand. Nokia considers this unit to be critical in scaling AI infrastructure, with investments set to support long-term performance, it said.

The group expects comparable operating profit in 2026 to come between 2 billion and 2.5 billion euros, an outlook that analysts from Jefferies called “somewhat conservative” in their note on the results.

Nokia said it would keep its dividend payout unchanged from the previous year at up to 14 euro cents per share. – Rappler.com