Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (ERIC) Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2022

April 14, 2022 3:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Peter Nyquist

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today’s call covering the Q1 result in 2022. With me here in the studio in Siesta Stockholm, I have our CFO, Carl Mellander. And on a link from New York, I have our CEO, Börje Ekholm. So as usual, we’ll end this presentation with a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions].

So I will start with this message. During today’s presentation, we will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations and certain planning assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. The actual result may differ materially due to factors mentioned in today’s press release and discussed in this conference call. We encourage you to read about these risks and uncertainties in our earnings report as well as in our annual report.

With that said, I would like to hand over to our President, CEO, Börje Ekholm. So please, Börje, you can start.

Börje Ekholm

Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone, and a big thank you to all of you for joining us. I’m very pleased to present a solid quarter. We continue to see good results from our strategy execution, both within our core mobile infrastructure business, but also as we expand into the enterprise space.

Before I go into the details of the quarter, I’d like to point out some new products we actually have released Interleaved AIR 3218 and Radio 4490 that you can see on the screen. These products form part of our leading 5G portfolio, which is really at the core of our success. So let me begin with some of the quarter’s key events. And of course, I have to start with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the continued aggression that marks a significant setback for the world.

I’m really heartbroken by the consequences for those directly impacted. The war is devastating for our whole society. After the invasion in February, we realized that our business in Russia could not be sustained, and we suspended all deliveries to Russia already at that point in time.

Over the weekend, the exemption for public telecom networks has been removed from the EU sanctions. So on Monday, we announced that we have suspended all -- or suspended our effective business in Russia indefinitely. This is a complex matter as telecommunication networks are part of the critical infrastructure. And as you know, many Western governments have pointed out the importance of maintaining Internet access and the flow of information for the people of Russia.