EuroBusinessMedia (EBM): Alcatal Lucent, a world telecoms leader, reports full-year results for 2011. Ben Verwaayen, welcome. You are the CEO of Alcatel Lucent, what are your comments on your full-year results?
Ben Verwaayen: Well, we were on a three-year journey to become a normal company and we almost made it. After Q3, most people thought we wouldn’t make it. We had a very good Q4. We delivered what we said we would. We did much better on profits than in 2010, we doubled our profits in 2011. We did very good in Q4 in cash, but if I add everything up, it was not where we wanted to end up, in total, after the three years. So, while we are very pleased with the result on Q4 in isolation, we are not very happy where we ended up in total.
EBM What is your outlook for 2012?
Ben Verwaayen: Well, we basically have said to the market “Expect two things: better margins and expect that we will have a substantial cash position at the end of 2012”. That’s important, because both elements are making the business successful, the cash is important because, as you know, in this particular industry, cash is not a prerequisite that you can count on necessarily, so you have to work hard to get it and I think that we will have a much better position at the end of 2012. A strong net cash position – that’s what we have said to the market – and if you look to the profitability, we’ll do better in 2012 than in 2011. How much better? We’ll see.
EBM: And finally, what are your strategic priorities for this coming year?
Ben Verwaayen: As always, it is customers first. We need to make sure that we stay relevant to our customers, that we deliver to them in a time fashion that is suiting them the innovations that can create that new relationship that our customers, the operators, have with the consumer. And that’s dominated by two elements. It is all about mobility and it’s all about cloud.
EBM: Ben Verywaayen, CEO of Alcatel Lucent, thank you very much.
Ben Verwaayen: Thank you
