Nokia Oyj agreed to buy Siemens AG’s share in their six-year venture for 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion), a deal that would give the Finnish company full access to the phone-equipment manufacturer’s cash flow.
Nokia will pay 1.2 billion euros for Siemens’s 50 percent stake in Nokia Siemens Networks, with the remainder as a secured loan from Siemens due a year after the deal’s completion, the companies said in a statement Monday. Nokia Siemens will keep its headquarters in Espoo, Finland, and Rajeev Suri will continue to lead the equipment supplier.
Nokia, which is fighting to come back in the smartphone industry, will get full control of a business whose earnings have improved since returning to profit last year. Siemens has been seeking to exit the wireless-gear manufacturing to focus on energy equipment, healthcare and infrastructure projects. Bloomberg News reported the accord late Sunday.
Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia Oyj, stands in front of a projection screen of the latest Nokia range of smartphones during a news conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Feb. 25. (Bloomberg)
“With this transaction, Nokia buys itself a future, whatever happens in smartphones and feature phones,” said Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in London. “Nokia Siemens has a future in the network equipment world, with a streamlined operation and a No. 2 position in a now concentrated and stable market.”
Hannu Rauhala, a Helsinki-based analyst at Pohjola Bank, said the transaction makes a takeover bid for Nokia less likely. “If someone manufactures mobile phones and consumer electronics, now they have to buy NSN too.”
Rauhala said Nokia Siemens has a valuation of at least 5 billion euros, higher than the 3.4 billion-euro valuation implied by Monday’s transaction price. Nokia has a market value of 10.7 billion euros based on June 28 Helsinki closing price.
Nokia Siemens is the most recent European technology venture to unravel. Sony Corp. last year completed a buyout of its mobile-phone partnership with Ericsson AB. Ericsson and STMicroelectronics SA this year agreed to split up their chipmaking venture ST-Ericsson.
Unprofitable until early last year, Nokia Siemens’s earnings have improved thanks to cost cuts. The venture is on track to exceed its target of saving 1 billion euros in operating expenses by the end of this year, Chief Executive Officer Suri said in February.
Siemens, which manufactures products from power turbines to high-speed trains, renewed efforts to sell its stake earlier this year, holding talks with buyout firms about a potential transaction, according to two people familiar with the talks. (Bloomberg)
