STOCKHOLM: Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has returned to the black in the third quarter after a string of losses but said profit for the fourth quarter would be smaller.
The company said yesterday it made 39 million euros (US$45.72mil) pre-tax profit in the third quarter against 116 million euros loss in the equivalent period 2002 and 102 million euros loss in the second quarter.
It saw strong sales of phones working in the PDC and CDMA standards in Japan and the T610 model operating in the world’s biggest mobile phone technology GSM.
“Sony Ericsson intends to be profitable for the second half of 2003,” the company said in a statement.
“Volume and sales are expected to continue to grow during the fourth quarter, but due to an increased proportion of lower-priced models in the product mix we anticipate it may be difficult to sustain the current level of profitability in the next quarter,” it added.
Sony Ericsson’s third-quarter sales rose to 1.3 billion euros from 869 million a year ago and 1.1 billion euros in the second quarter. The company shipped 7.1 million phones in the latest quarter, up from 5 million last year and 6.7 million in the second quarter 2003.
Jointly owned by the world’s biggest mobile phone systems maker Ericsson of Sweden and Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony, the company is the world’s fifth biggest handset producer. – Reuters
