Nokia lashes out at Standard & Poor's rating downgrade

Company claims junk status rating is unfounded

Nokia has issued a statement hitting back at Standard & Poor's (S&P) decision to slash the handset maker's debt rating by two additional steps.

Nokia's credit rating was downgraded on Tuesday. The Finnish phone maker stock is already rated as junk by credit rating company Fitch and others.

S&P reported that, despite the promise of new Windows Phone 8 handsets, Nokia's net cash flow may drop to less than €3bn by the end of the year, a marked decrease from the company's €4.2bn June stockpile.

The ratings company also reported that Nokia has a debt of €5.2bn and lost €2.34bn in the first and second quarters of this year.

Looking to the future, S&P went on to question Windows Phone 8's ability to reverse the ailing smartphone maker's fortunes.

"We have lowered our volume assumptions for Nokia's smartphones because the company's market share continues to decline," read S&P's report.

"We expect Nokia to launch new models, notably those based on the Windows Phone 8 operating system, but we think it could take some time before this can help stabilise revenues."

Nokia has since issued a statement criticising S&P's statistics.

"The impact of Standard & Poor's decision on the company is limited. As we continue our transition, we are applying a strong focus on cash conservation while simultaneously reducing our operating costs and making our operating model stronger and more agile," said Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila.

"We ended the second quarter 2012 with gross and net cash both higher than a year earlier. With gross cash of €9.4bn and net cash of €4.2bn, we have a strong financial position and robust liquidity profile," he said.

Despite Nokia's defiant stance, S&P has continued to question Nokia's chances of succeeding, highlighting the ongoing dominance of Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems.