HELSINKI: Finnish telecom equipment giant Nokia announced on Thursday a plan to complete the acquisition of its former rival, French-American Alcatel-Lucent during the third quarter.

The world’s former top mobile phone maker had gained control of 80 per cent of Alcatel-Lucent’s shares by January but has struggled to mop up the remaining shareholders to gain full control of the company. Nokia is settling the ownership issue “through privately negotiated transactions”.

“Nokia expects to cross 95pc ownership thresholds in Alcatel-Lucent and announces intention to file a public buy-out offer in cash for the remaining Alcatel-Lucent securities followed by a squeeze-out,” the company said.

France’s stock market regulator will still have to approve the transaction, as its rules require Nokia to cross a 95pc threshold in order to make a clean sweep by delisting all remaining shares from the Paris stock exchange.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016