S&P downgrades Nokia credit again, this time to ‘junk’ status

Around two months after downgrading Nokia’s credit rating, Standard & Poor’s has done it again, this time moving the company from a low investment-grade prospect of BBB- to a non-investment (“junk”) one of BB+ in its long-term forecast. This comes only a few days after another ratings agency, Fitch, also dropped Nokia’s ratings to junk status and the company’s share price hit a 15-year low. Although Nokia has significant cash holdings, S&P says it sees a negative outlook for the company, even if the Lumia line does as well as expected. “We still expect revenue from Lumia smartphones to grow over time but not sufficiently to offset a rapid decline in revenue from Symbian-based smartphones over the next few quarters,” it announced.

Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila responded much the same way as last time, stating that the company was “in the middle of a transformation program” and would be “implementing a decisive action plan” for future growth. The company itself has admitted that it’s having a difficult time in the transition between the rapidly declining Symbian and the still nascent Windows Phone, and the risks it’s taking aren’t likely to pay off for a while. S&P says that if Nokia continues to do poorly, it may be downgraded again in the next year.