India emerges as high growth market for Ericsson. Q4 revenue up 20%

India emerged as the top growth market for Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson which today reported 20 per cent rise in revenue at 2,362 million Swedish Krona (about Rs 1,753 crore) from the country for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

For full year 2014, Ericsson’s revenue jumped 25 per cent at SEK 7,702 million in India – the highest growth rate among all markets.

“Sales increased YoY mainly due to higher operator spending driven by continued growth in mobile data traffic. Global Services sales showed a strong development mainly as a result of the first pan-India managed services contract,” Ericsson said in its report.

India, based on Ericsson revenue in 2014, contributes 4 percent revenue to Ericsson global, the company said.

Ericsson India, headed by Chris Houghton, has clocked SEK 1.2 billion from networks, SEK 1 billion from global services and SEK 0.2 billion from support solutions. Network business of Ericsson India rose 1 percent, global services 38 percent and support solutions 127 percent in Q4 2014.

Ericsson posted revenue of SEK 1,973 million (about Rs 1,463 crore at current exchange rate) in the same period a year ago.

Net global sales of the company increased by a per cent to SEK 68 billion during the reported quarter from SEK 67 billion a year ago. The sales growth year-on-year was mainly driven by the Middle East, Europe and Asia, offset by sales decline in North America.

Ericsson mentioned India as its third largest market with Japan and both the countries contributed 4 per cent to total sales of the company.

Ericsson reported 13.32 per cent in its workforce in India at 19,971 at the end of fourth quarter from 17,622 in same period of 2013.

With inputs from PTI