Alcatel-Lucent posts US$723 million annual loss in 2009

Paris-based telecoms vendor Alcatel-Lucent claimed a minor profit in the fourth quarter, but failed to pull itself out of the red for the full year. Despite fourth quarter revenues being down 19.9 per cent year-on-year, it reported a Q4 net profit of €46 million. However, the full year net loss came in at €524 million (US$723 million), a stark contrast from the €5.215 billion loss for the full year 2008.

Fourth quarter revenues reached €3.967 billion, with an operating cash flow of €635 million. Annual revenues were down 10.8 per cent year-on-year to €15.157 billion. The net debt as of December 31, 2009 was €886 million.

“We delivered on our commitments for 2009 and I am pleased with the operational progress we have made,” commented CEO Ben Verwaayen.

“Revenue came in at the lower end of the indicated range for the year due to the fact that our fourth quarter was not as strong as expected. However, I am encouraged by the strong sequential growth in our orders and by the accelerated traction we are seeing in next generation technologies, as evidenced by our selection by AT&T as a key supplier for LTE.”

He added that Alcatel-Lucent materially exceeded its cost and expense reduction target in 2009, allowing the company to be around breakeven at the adjusted operating income level for the year. Additionally, in the last two quarters the firm demonstrated its ability to generate cash through a more disciplined management of its working capital.

During 2009, Europe remained the vendor’s most important market contributing 34 per cent of revenues, followed by North America with 31 per cent and Asia Pacific with 20 per cent. The rest of the world accounted for the remaining 15 per cent of revenues.