Telecoms equipment maker Lucent has reported its first profitable year since 2000, the firm said yesterday.

The US-based firm posted net income of $348m for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, more than tripling its net income figure of $99m from the previous year. Earnings per share for the quarter ending in September were up to $0.08 per share compared to $0.02 a year earlier.

In the company's first profitable fiscal year for four years, net income amounted to $1.14bn compared to a net loss of $770m for fiscal 2003.

Revenue for the quarter was up 19 per cent to $2.40bn from the previous year figure of $2.03bn. Yearly revenue amounted to $9.05bn, up 7 per cent from $8.47bn in fiscal 2003. The figures surpassed the expectations of analysts on Wall Street, who were forecasting revenues of $2.30bn and $8.93bn for the quarter and year respectively, according to the consensus estimate from Thomson First Call.

Lucent's mobility solutions segment continued to perform well. Mobility revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004 were $1.11bn, an increase of 13 per cent sequentially and 75 per cent compared with the year-ago quarter. For the fiscal year 2004, mobility revenues were $4.01bn, a considerable increase of 30 per cent from fiscal year 2003.

The company's two other segments - integrated network solutions (INS) and Lucent worldwide services (LWS) - also showed positive sequential growth, up 4 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

Lucent has attributed its successful year to its focus on areas of identified growth such as broadband, next-generation mobile solutions and VoIP (Voice over IP). In the past year the company has won a number of high-profile contracts such as the €5bn deal with Verizon Wireless to continue the expansion of the operator's next-generation mobile voice and data network.

"We continued to generate profitable results and positive cash flow this quarter, while investing in the business. At this point, we expect Lucent's annual revenues for fiscal 2005 to increase on a percentage basis in the mid-single digits, which we believe will be at or above the market growth rate," said Frank D'Amelio chief financial officer at Lucent.

Copyright © 2004, ENN

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