Sweden's Ericsson Q2 profit surges, sales marginally down

Wireless equipment maker Ericsson says second-quarter profit rose 76 percent to 2.7 billion kronor ($394 million) mainly due to higher margins on its premium products, lower restructuring charges and improved overall efficiency.

Net sales in the April to June period fell slightly to 54.8. billion kronor ($8 billion) from 55.3 billion kronor in the same period last year. Net profit was 1.5 billion kronor a year earlier.

The world's largest supplier of mobile phone infrastructure said Friday that political unrest prevailing in parts of the Middle East and Africa continued to impact negatively on revenue in those regions. It said also that sales in Japan had reduced during the quarter.

But the Stockholm-based company reiterated that key contracts would continue boosting sales in the latter part of this year.