Finnish mobile phone producer Nokia Corporation has sold its Romanian subsidiary to another company within the Nokia group, for EUR 18.8 million. The buyer was Nokia Finland Oy, and is part of preparing the mobile phone division for the takeover by Microsoft, approved in November 2013, according to Mediafax newswire.

Nokia agreed to sell its mobile phone division to Microsoft in November 2013 for some EUR 5.4 billion.

Nokia started producing mobile phone in Romania, at Jucu, in 2008, following investments of EUR 60 million. But the Finnish company decided to shut down the local factory three years later, moving production to Vietnam. A year later, Nokia Romania was reporting a turnover of just around EUR 5.7 million, after EUR 911 million in 2011.

In 2013, Nokia's full year net sales 2013 were EUR 12.7 billion, down 17 percent compared to full year 2012.

editor@romania-insider.com