Independent investment positions Vertu for future growth
Espoo, Finland - Nokia has agreed terms for EQT VI, part of the leading private
equity group in Northern Europe, to acquire Vertu, the global leader in luxury
mobile phones, from Nokia.
Nokia believes that this is the best option for the next step in Vertu's journey
of delivering excellence, enabling the brand to focus on increased opportunities
for growth in the luxury category.
"With its strong brand, undisputed category leadership and attractive growth
outlook, Vertu fits well with EQT VI's investment strategy. EQT VI is excited
about the opportunity to develop Vertu as a standalone company and plans to
drive the development of the luxury mobile phone category through significant
investments in retail expansion, marketing and product development," said Jan
Ståhlberg, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT VI.
Having delivered double digit sales growth over the past few years, Vertu
continues to lead its class with a portfolio of high end mobile phones,
increasingly led by its smartphones and tailored services, offering unique
access, experiences and opportunities to a discerning and growing customer base.
"This is a logical next step in the evolution of Vertu as the world leader in
luxury mobile products," said Perry Oosting, President of Vertu. "Since Vertu
began in 1998, our business has grown every year, due to the efforts of our
talented workforce and the unique products and services we offer to our
customers. We believe that EQT VI will position Vertu to continue to grow and
lead in our marketplace."
Striking the perfect balance between an unparalleled art of craftsmanship and
modern technology, Vertu offers an unrivalled range of category leading mobile
phones as functional as they are aesthetically desirable.
Vertu prides itself on being a pioneer in delivering relevant, tailored luxury
information and services direct to mobile handsets through Vertu Concierge, and
continues to expand this proposition to deliver unparalleled customer service.
Vertu is headquartered in Church Crookham, UK and employs approximately 1,000
people worldwide.
The transaction, the terms of which are confidential, is expected to close
during the second half of 2012, subject to customary regulatory approvals and
closing conditions. Nokia will retain a 10% minority shareholding in Vertu.
Note to editors: Vertu images are available at http://media.vertu.com/
About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an
integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3
billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access
information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia's
technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most
recognized in the world. For more information, visit http://www.nokia.com/about-
nokia
About Vertu
Vertu is the pioneer and leading manufacturer of luxury mobile phones. Created
to complement the discerning customer's lifestyle, Vertu offers tailored, luxury
services in combination with the finest in design, engineering and manufacture.
Vertu uses innovations in manufacturing and mobile phone technology combined
with traditional craftsmanship, assembling each phone at the company's
headquarters in England. Vertu is available in over 500 stores, including over
70 Vertu boutiques, in 66 countries worldwide. More information can be found on
www.vertu.com.
Forward Looking Statements
It should be noted that certain statements herein that are not historical facts
are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding:
A) the expected plans and benefits of our partnership with Microsoft to bring
together complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobile ecosystem
for smartphones; B) the timing and expected benefits of our new strategies,
including expected operational and financial benefits and targets as well as
changes in leadership and operational structure; C) the timing of the deliveries
of our products and services; D) our ability to innovate, develop, execute and
commercialize new technologies, products and services; E) expectations regarding
market developments and structural changes; F) expectations and targets
regarding our industry volumes, market share, prices, net sales and margins of
our products and services; G) expectations and targets regarding our operational
priorities and results of operations; H) expectations and targets regarding
collaboration and partnering arrangements; I) the outcome of pending and
threatened litigation; J) expectations regarding the successful completion of
restructurings, investments, acquisitions and divestments on a timely basis and
our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection
with any such restructurings, investments, acquisitions and divestments; and K)
statements preceded by "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "foresee," "target,"
"estimate," "designed," "aim", "plans," "intends," "will" or similar
expressions. These statements are based on management's best assumptions and
beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they
involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the
results that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differences
include, but are not limited to: 1) our ability to effectively and timely
implement planned changes to our operational structure, including the planned
restructuring measures, and to successfully complete the planned investments,
acquisitions and divestments in order to improve our operating model and achieve
targeted efficiencies and reductions in operating expenses;Â 2) our success in
the smartphone market, including our ability to introduce and bring to market
quantities of attractive, competitively priced Nokia products with Windows Phone
that are positively differentiated from our competitors' products, both outside
and within the Windows Phone ecosystem; 3) our ability to make Nokia products
with Windows Phone a competitive choice for consumers, and together with
Microsoft, our success in encouraging and supporting a competitive and
profitable global ecosystem for Windows Phone smartphones that achieves
sufficient scale, value and attractiveness to all market participants; 4) the
difficulties we experience in having a competitive offering of Symbian devices
and maintaining the economic viability of the Symbian smartphone platform during
the transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform; 5) our
ability to realize a return on our investment in next generation devices,
platforms and user experiences; 6) our ability to produce attractive and
competitive feature phones, including devices with more smartphone-like
features, in a timely and cost efficient manner with differentiated hardware,
software, localized services and applications; 7) the intensity of competition
in the various markets where we do business and our ability to maintain or
improve our market position or respond successfully to changes in the
competitive environment; 8) our ability to retain, motivate, develop and recruit
appropriately skilled employees; 9) the success of our Location & Commerce
strategy, including our ability to maintain current sources of revenue, provide
support for our Devices & Services business and create new sources of revenue
from our location-based services and commerce assets; 10) our success in
collaboration and partnering arrangements with third parties, including
Microsoft; 11) our ability to increase our speed of innovation, product
development and execution to bring new innovative and competitive mobile
products and location-based or other services to the market in a timely manner;
12) our dependence on the development of the mobile and communications industry,
including location-based and other services industries, in numerous diverse
markets, as well as on general economic conditions globally and regionally; 13)
our ability to protect numerous patented standardized or proprietary
technologies from third-party infringement or actions to invalidate the
intellectual property rights of these technologies; 14) our ability to maintain
and leverage our traditional strengths in the mobile product market if we are
unable to retain the loyalty of our mobile operator and distributor customers
and consumers as a result of the implementation of our strategies or other
factors; 15) the success, financial condition and performance of our suppliers,
collaboration partners and customers; 16) our ability to manage efficiently our
manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety, security
and timely delivery of our products and services; 17) our ability to source
sufficient amounts of fully functional quality components, sub-assemblies,
software and services on a timely basis without interruption and on favorable
terms; 18) our ability to manage our inventory and timely adapt our supply to
meet changing demands for our products; 19) any actual or even alleged defects
or other quality, safety and security issues in our product; 20) the impact of a
cybersecurity breach or other factors leading to any actual or alleged loss,
improper disclosure or leakage of any personal or consumer data collected by us
or our partners or subcontractors, made available to us or stored in or through
our products; 21) our ability to successfully manage the pricing of our products
and costs related to our products and operations; 22) exchange rate
fluctuations, including, in particular, fluctuations between the euro, which is
our reporting currency, and the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese
yuan, as well as certain other currencies; 23) our ability to protect the
technologies, which we or others develop or that we license, from claims that we
have infringed third parties' intellectual property rights, as well as our
unrestricted use on commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies in our
products and services; 24) the impact of economic, political, regulatory or
other developments on our sales, manufacturing facilities and assets located in
emerging market countries; 25) the impact of changes in government policies,
trade policies, laws or regulations where our assets are located and where we do
business; 26) the potential complex tax issues and obligations we may incur to
pay additional taxes in the various jurisdictions in which we do business; 27)
any disruption to information technology systems and networks that our
operations rely on; 28) unfavorable outcome of litigations;Â 29) allegations of
possible health risks from electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and
mobile products and lawsuits related to them, regardless of merit; 30) Nokia
Siemens Networks ability to implement its new strategy and restructuring plan
effectively and in a timely manner to improve its overall competitiveness and
profitability; 31) Nokia Siemens Networks' success in the telecommunications
infrastructure services market and Nokia Siemens Networks' ability to
effectively and profitably adapt its business and operations in a timely manner
to the increasingly diverse service needs of its customers; 32) Nokia Siemens
Networks' ability to maintain or improve its market position or respond
successfully to changes in the competitive environment; 33) Nokia Siemens
Networks' liquidity and its ability to meet its working capital requirements;
34) Nokia Siemens Networks' ability to timely introduce new competitive
products, services, upgrades and technologies; 35) Nokia Siemens Networks'
ability to execute successfully its strategy for the acquired Motorola Solutions
wireless network infrastructure assets; 36) developments under large, multi-year
contracts or in relation to major customers in the networks infrastructure and
related services business; 37) the management of our customer financing
exposure, particularly in the networks infrastructure and related services
business; 38) whether ongoing or any additional governmental investigations into
alleged violations of law by some former employees of Siemens may involve and
affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by Siemens to Nokia
Siemens Networks; and 39) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer
relationships resulting from ongoing or any additional governmental
investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to
Nokia Siemens Networks, as well as the risk factors specified on pages 13-47 of
Nokia's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011 under
Item 3D. "Risk Factors." Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying
assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results to
differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Nokia does not
undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise,
except to the extent legally required.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services@nokia.com
www.nokia.com
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Source: NOKIA via Thomson Reuters ONE
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