Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia has completed buying the shares of its Chinese joint venture Nokia Shanghai Bell that it did not already own, making China’s earliest foreign telecoms JV a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, The Paper reported today.

Nokia finalized the transfer of the other half of Nokia Shanghai Bell from China Huaxin Post & Telecom Technologies in Dec. 12, becoming the venture’s sole shareholder, according to the report.

Espoo-based Nokia said the move will help optimize its equity structure in China. Going forward, Nokia Shanghai Bell will operate under the Nokia brand in China, align its operations with Nokia’s global model, and continue to focus on serving Chinese customers.

The report did not disclose how much Nokia paid for the equity, but China Huaxin listed its stake in Nokia Shanghai Bell on the Beijing Equity Exchange last month for CNY4.1 billion (USD582 million).

Nokia Shanghai Bell’s predecessor, Shanghai Bell, was formed in 1984 as a JV between China Post & Telecommunications, now known as China Potevio, and Belgium’s Bell Telephone Manufacturing. Bell was later acquired by France’s Alcatel, which in turn was merged into Nokia in 2015. Over time, the ownership structure evolved into a 50 percent stake held by the Chinese shareholder and a 50 percent stake plus one share held by Nokia.

In 2024, Nokia and China Huaxin jointly reviewed the future ownership structure of Nokia Shanghai Bell. Following those discussions, Nokia exercised its call option to begin the process of acquiring China Huaxin’s stake, Nokia said in its 2024 annual report.

Nokia Shanghai Bell focuses on mobile communications, infrastructure networks, and cloud services. In the first three quarters of this year, the company had a net profit of CNY90.5 million (USD12.8 million) and revenue of CNY4.6 billion (USD653 million), according to an earlier announcement by China Huaxin. It had assets of CNY11.6 billion (USD1.65 billion) as of Sept. 30.

Source: Yicai