Nokia Extends Annual Growth Forecast

Tuesday, December 5th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) â€” Nokia shares jumped nearly 16 percent Tuesday after the company extended its targets of up to 35 percent annual revenue growth into 2003 and said its share of the cellular phone market was now more than 30 percent.

``The opportunities in the future are enormous as we enter an unprecedented time when mobility, Internet, digitized media and other content can be combined and become available to almost anyone, anytime and anywhere,'' Nokia's Chief Executive Jorma Ollila told investors in London.

Nokia's upbeat market assessment comes amid mounting doubts over the industry's future as technology and telecommunication shares have dropped sharply in recent weeks.

Shares of Nokia rose $7, or almost 16 percent, to close at $51.38 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, predicted earlier this year that it would have annual growth of 25 percent to 35 percent through 2002. It said Tuesday that would likely continue another year.

The company also claimed a market share of more than 30 percent and said growth in its key mobile phones business continues to outpace that of its competitors. Nokia also said the number of mobile phone users worldwide will surpass 1 billion during the first half of 2002 rather than by the end 2002, as it had earlier predicted.

On Tuesday, the company also revealed that a deal announced last week with Redmond, Washington-based AT&T Wireless to upgrade its network in the United States was valued at more than $1 billion over four years. Nokia said it was the biggest deal of its kind for the Finland-based company.

In October, Nokia unveiled strong third quarter results, showing a 40 percent increase in net profit and a 50 percent increase in net sales.