Nokia Shares Fall after Samsung Patent Deal Disappoints
Shares in Finnish telecom giant Nokia plummeted on Monday after the group announced it had settled a patent dispute with South Korea's Samsung whose terms disappointed investors.
Nokia's shares fell by more than 11 percent on the Helsinki stock market following the announcement of the settlement.
"The International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce has issued its award for the binding arbitration between Nokia and Samsung," the Finnish company said in a statement, referring to its patents used by Samsung between 2014 and 2018.
Nokia, which is currently merging with its French-American rival Alcatel-Lucent via a share exchange offer, said the court's decision would have a "positive financial impact" for its licensing business Nokia Technologies.
The exact terms of the patent deal with Samsung were not given, but Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Sebastien Sztabowicz, cited by the Bloomberg news agency, said Nokia probably gained around 200 million euros ($218 million), compared with market expectations of 250 million.
"It seems that some investors were disappointed that Nokia did not get a lot more than," said equity strategist Kristian Tammela at Nordea Wealth Management.
Nokia itself said the deal would raise net sales for its Nokia Technologies unit for last year to some 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from 578 million euros a year earlier.
All in all Nokia Technologies expects to gain at least 1.3 billion euros from its patent portfolio between 2016 and 2018, it said.
One analyst in Paris, where Nokia shares are also listed, said the disappointing patent deal alone was not enough to explain the sharp stock decline.
"It's possible that the fact that the share exchange deal between Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent expires on Wednesday is having an impact. Some shareholders who don't want to take part are probably selling their stock," the analyst said.
Nokia, which now concentrates on network equipment, was taken over by Samsung as the global number one in handsets in 2012, after failing to adapt to the rapid rise of smartphones.
Source: Agence France Presse
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