Nokia may be finally set to exit Huawei device JV

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, it may have finally succeeded. The report says Nokia is a 51% owner of TD Tech, which sells ruggedised devices and other industrial connectivity solutions into the Chinese and other markets. Although you would do well to find any mention of Nokia on its website. The rest is apparently owned by Huawei, which the SCMP says has long been the de factor controller of the company.

In its Q1 2023 report, Nokia said “we recently agreed to the sale of our stake in the joint venture TD Tech, subject to closing conditions.” But it that never happened, following resistance from Huawei. A new deal in which the Chinese state unsurprisingly takes a piece of the action was apparently announced by the State Administration for Market Regulation. Once more we have to take the SCMP’s word for it because all we could find on the SAMR site was endless references to speeches from Chinese premier Xi Jinping, all of which were ‘important’.

We’re told the move doesn’t present any antitrust concerns because Huawei doesn’t currently dominate the Chinese smartphone market. It’s not surprising to learn that Nokia has been trying to divest its half of the company for a while, since mutual antagonism between the Chinese and US spheres of influence must be making it increasingly difficult to maintain such join ventures. We could find no mention of this new deal on either Nokia’s or Huawei’s websites but maybe it will get a mention in Nokia’s quarterlies when they’re published later this week.