Nokia To Acquire Infinera In $2.3 Bln Deal

(RTTNews) - Nokia (NOK) agreed to acquire Infinera (INFN) in a transaction valuing the company at $6.65 per share or an enterprise value of US$2.3 billion, the companies said in a statement.

Nokia noted that the transaction represents a premium of 28% to Infinera's share price at the close of 26 June 2024. At least 70% of the consideration will be paid in cash and Infinera's shareholders can elect to receive up to 30% of the aggregate consideration in the form of Nokia ADSs.

For each Infinera share, Infinera shareholders will be able to elect to receive either: $6.65 cash, 1.7896 Nokia shares or a combination of $4.66 in cash and 0.5355 Nokia shares for each Infinera share. All Nokia shares will be issued in the form of American Depositary Shares.

The transaction is expected to be accretive to Nokia's comparable operating profit and earnings per share in year 1 and to deliver more than 10% comparable earnings per share accretion in 2027.

The combination is expected to deliver 200 million euros of net comparable operating profit synergies by 2027.

Nokia expects one-time integration costs of about 200 million euros related to the transaction.

It is targeted to close the deal during the first half of 2025, subject to approval by Infinera's shareholders, regulatory approvals including antitrust, CFIUS and other foreign direct investment approvals and other customary closing conditions.

In conjunction with the transaction, Nokia's Board has committed to increasing and accelerating Nokia's on-going share buyback program to mitigate any dilution from the equity component of the acquisition. This will be in addition to Nokia's on-going 600 million euros buyback program.

INFN closed Thursday's regular trading at $5.26 up $0.08 or $1.54%. In the after-hours trading the stock further gained $0.95 or 18.06%.