Teleste sees strong revenue growth

Cable technology provider Teleste has posted net sales of €68.4 million for the fourth quarter, up 27% year-on-year, while operating profit fell by 7.1% to €3.3 million.

Operating profit for the full year was up 28.4% to €14.3 million on sales of €247.8 million, up 25.7%.

Teleste said its 4Q profits were hit by weakness in the services business and higher fixed costs. The group saw strong growth in orders for video and broadband products.

“Orders received and net sales from the fourth quarter were the best in Teleste’s history. Also, the order backlog surpassed the previous year, particularly in access network products, whereas the operating profit fell from the comparative period. Operating profit was impacted negatively by the weaker-than-expected profitability of the services business and the fact that the main part of deliveries in access network products fell on lower-margin products subject to competition. Moreover, fixed costs were exceptionally at a higher level than those of the previous quarters. Management of working capital called for special attention as the business continued to grow rapidly,” said CEO Jukka Rinnevaara.

Rinnevaara said that for access network products, the most significant increase in the orders and deliveries took place in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.