Nokia shares seen up after Siemens deal closure

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Shares in the world's top cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) are expected to open higher on Thursday after finalization of its network equipment making joint venture with Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE), analysts said.

Nokia and German conglomerate Siemens said late on Wednesday their joint venture would start operations on April 1, with Siemens putting an extra 800 million euros ($1.06 billion) into the venture and Nokia investing a further 100 million.

"It should be clearly positive news for Nokia, especially due to the extra compensation," said eQ analyst Jari Honko.

The 50-50 joint venture, which will be the world's second-biggest mobile-networks company and the third-biggest in fixed-line infrastructure, had been due to launch at the beginning of 2007 but was delayed by a corruption investigation at Siemens.

"As the start was already postponed by three months there has been speculations it could drag on for longer," said Raine Vammelvirta, analyst at FIM Securities.

The companies said they both would increase their respective net asset contributions to Nokia Siemens Networks, with Siemens contributing 2.4 billion euros worth of assets and Nokia 1.7 billion euros. Previously, both firms had been set to contribute 1.6 billion euros.