Nokia luxury brand Vertu wants to sell Zhe Zhejiang bid rejected

After a month of silence, news of Nokia's sale of its luxury mobile phone brand Vertu has seen new trends. According to sources familiar with the investment bank, there are currently Zhejiang entrepreneurs from China who are interested in acquiring Vertu but have been rejected. Allegedly, the reason why Zhejiang merchants were rejected is that Nokia has set restrictions on the sale of Vertu and will not seek Chinese buyers.

The news about Vertu's sale came from the British Financial Times on December 9th last year. The report mentioned that Nokia plans to sell its luxury mobile phone brand Vertu to focus on the full counterattack against Apple and has hired Goldman Sachs to The transaction is reviewed. According to the report, some private equity investment funds expressed interest in this transaction, while some international luxury goods companies are also potential takers.

Since Vertu's financial status is not open, the current Vertu sales price has not been clearly priced yet, but third-party data shows that Vertu currently has annual sales of between 268 to 400 million US dollars.

As Nokia refused to respond to this rumor, no further progress has been made since then. The reporter called Goldman Sachs on the acquisition of Chinese entrepreneurs, but Goldman Sachs stated that “it is impossible to comment on whether Goldman Sachs participates in this transaction and whether the seller has set restrictions on Chinese buyers.”

From the abandonment of Symbian, the collapse of rumors, to the delisting announced in November last year from Frankfurt, the once prestigious communications giant is facing unprecedented difficulties.

According to data released by IDC, in the third quarter of 2011, Nokia’s smartphone market share in Finland was 31%, a decrease of over 59% year-on-year. According to other data, in the third quarter of 2011, Nokia’s sales of global smartphones fell by 39% and its market share also dropped to 14% under the tight pressure of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. This directly led to Nokia’s third quarter of 2011. Loss of 68 million euros.

In the "Wall Street Journal" selected 2012 brand that is about to disappear, the communication industry giant who once sat on the top spot in the world, he ranked first. Although Vertu deliberately distanced itself from Nokia, the rumors of selling Vertu once again made the market pessimistic about the prospects of Nokia's empire.

Vertu was founded by Nokia in 1998 and is headquartered in the United Kingdom. The brand is positioned in high-end luxury goods and is famous for its appearance and luxury materials. The average price of each model is as high as 100,000 yuan. The most expensive model is priced at more than 300,000 US dollars. Some big-name stars are loyal users.

Allegedly, customers from emerging markets such as Russia, Asia and the Middle East are their biggest drivers of rapid growth in recent years. Due to a major setback in Japan, a major consumer of luxury goods, last July closed its last store in Tokyo, Japan, and Vertu is investing more energy in the increasingly frenzied China of luxury goods consumption. According to public information, 38 of Vertu's more than 80 stores worldwide are in China. In an earlier interview, Vertu Global President Perry Austin stated that the Chinese market has become the most important market in the world. This point can be confirmed in China's performing arts stars. They are the owners of Vertu.

Although Vertu values ​​the Chinese market very much, some market observers are not optimistic about the prospects of this transaction. Liu Qicheng, editor-in-chief of Communication World Net, previously stated that vendors who buy Vertu should not only have brands matching their high-end image, but also have sufficient cash. Some market participants pointed out that the high-end image does not match the lack of high-end luxury brand management and management experience, which may be one of the factors that Vertu refused Chinese companies to take over.

Sun Changxu, chief analyst of “International Electronic Business”, told reporters that if Vertu breaks from Nokia, its brand value will shrink dramatically. Even if Chinese companies can acquire, its value is hard to be reflected. For Nokia, selling high-end brands that actually operate for more than a decade will have a significant negative impact on their own brand image. Especially when the acquisition negotiations between Nokia and Microsoft are moving forward, if the Vertu brand is stripped, it will also affect the future purchase price.