Standard and Poor's downgrades Nokia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Standard and Poor's downgraded mobile phone giant Nokia's rating by a notch, blaming especially the Finnish company's difficulties in defending its smartphone market share.

S&P cut Nokia's long-term corporate credit rating to BBB- from BBB, with a negative outlook "reflecting the possibility of a further downgrade in the next two years," if the companies margins remain too weak and its cash holdings decrease too much, the ratings agency said in a statement.

"The rating action reflects limited earnings visibility in Nokia's smartphone sub-division," S&P said, adding that this in turn had led it to revise down its assessment of the company's profitability and cashflow in 2012.

Nokia meanwhile stressed that the ratings agency had highlighted its "conservative financial policy, strong balance sheet and very robust liquidity position," and insisted: "S&P's rating action will not have a material impact on our current financing costs."

The news did not appear to scare off investors either: Nokia's share price was trading up 0.36 percent in afternoon trading on a Helsinki stock exchange down 0.05 percent.