The announcement of the Nordic giant with 90,000 employees comes the day after its Swedish competitor Ericsson decided to suspend its activities in Russia indefinitely. Nokia, which had already suspended deliveries to the country in early March, “can now announce that it will leave the Russian market,” he said in a statement. “It was clear to Nokia from the early days of the invasion of Ukraine that maintaining our presence in Russia would not be possible,” said the boss of the Finnish group, Pekka Lundmark, on Twitter.
Inevitable job cuts
Nokia has 2,000 employees in Russia, including around 200 in research and development, a spokeswoman said. “Unfortunately, in these circumstances, job cuts are inevitable. Nevertheless, for some positions outside of Russia, we will offer transfers,” she said in an email.
“The safety and well-being of our employees is our priority and we want to make these changes in an orderly fashion,” said Maria Vaismaa, group public relations manager. This decision will also result in a provision of 100 million euros in the accounts of Nokia in the first quarter, published at the end of the month.
Russia represented “less than 2%” of Nokia’s turnover in 2021 and the group says it is maintaining its financial forecast for 2022 “due to strong demand in other regions”. At midday, the group’s share lost 1% to 4.88 euros on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in a market down slightly (-0.1%).
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