L.M. Ericsson announced it appointed Sven-Christer Nilsson president and chief executive officer of the company, replacing Lars Ramqvist, who will become chairman of the board.
Following the company’s annual meeting on March 30, Ramqvist is slated to replace Bjorn Svedberg, who is leaving the board after 21 years.
Nilsson has been with Ericsson since 1982 and currently heads the company’s Business Unit Cellular Systems-American Standards within the Business Area Mobile Systems group, said the company. He also has headed the company’s Business Unit Mobile Switching Systems group, Ericsson Radio Systems Sverige AB and marketing and sales at Ericsson Components.
Concurrent with the announcement, Ericsson released its operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31.
Net income for the year reached $1.5 billion, compared with net income of $900 million during 1996. Income per share increased 67 percent to $1.54. Net sales for the year increased 35 percent to $21.2 billion, compared with net sales of $15.7 billion in 1996.
The company’s mobile systems group contributed nearly half of all net sales-at $9.1 billion for the year-followed by the Infocom systems group with $6.2 billion. The mobile phones and terminals group increased net sales by 87 percent for a total of $5.4 billion for 1997 compared with $2.9 billion for 1996.
Ericsson said the Infocom Systems group, while reporting increases in orders of 9 percent and net sales of 23 percent, continued to post unsatisfactory earnings due to price pressure in major product areas, the cost of ongoing restructuring of operations and the continued substantial technical development programs.
“During the year, we continued to build up reserves for risks relating to customer financing, changes in technology and in markets, as well as restructuring,” said Ramqvist. “Ericsson defended its position as a world leader in systems, and during the year we achieved a leading position also in mobile phones, with an 87-percent increase in net sales.”
The United States continues to be Ericsson’s largest market, followed by China, the United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Japan, Germany and Australia. During the quarter, Russia became one of Ericsson’s largest markets with respect to order bookings, the company said.
The financial turmoil in Southeast Asia and Latin America did not have a significant effect on Ericsson’s financial income and expenses, and the company noted gains for the region as a whole in net sales and order bookings during the fourth quarter.
