Ericsson slashes dividend, posts loss in Q4

[STOCKHOLM] Mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson slashed its 2016 dividend by 73 per cent on Thursday to 1.00 Swedish crown (0.16 SGD) as it posted fourth-quarter operating income below market expectations and said its network market remained weak.

Operating income was a loss of 300 million Swedish crowns compared to a 11.0 billion profit in the year-ago quarter and below a mean forecast of a 417 million crowns profit in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Sales at Ericsson, one of the global top mobile network equipment makers, were 65.2 billion crowns, above a forecast of 59.2 billion. The gross margin was 26.1 per cent, under the mean forecast of 28.1 percent.

REUTERS