Nokia’s maps unit draws further bidders

Nokia's maps business has drawn interest from potential buyers including Facebook and a consortium of German carmakers comprising BMW, Audi and Daimler, a leading German business magazine has reported.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Manager Magazin also confirmed an earlier report that online taxi service Uber is looking at the books of Here, Nokia's mapping unit, and that US private equity firm Hellman & Friedman was also interested.

According to the magazine, the book value of the unit is €2 billion. A brokerage estimate by Inderes Equity Research values Here at between €4.4 billion and €6.9 billion, based on a sum-of-parts calculation.

Nokia, BMW, Daimler, Facebook and Uber declined to comment on the report. Audi and San Francisco-based Hellman & Friedman were not available for comment.

Takeover

Finland’s Nokia said last week it had started a strategic review of its Berlin-based Here unit after announcing a €15.6 billion takeover of network equipment rival

Alcatel-Lucent

.

"I want to be very clear: if we are to sell this business, we are not a forced seller," Nokia chief executive Rajeev Suri told a news conference last Friday.

Separately, Continental AG, one of the world's biggest auto parts makers and a partner of Nokia's Here in-vehicle navigation systems, declined to comment on whether it might make a takeover bid.

Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper said a three-way bidding alliance of Germany's big automakers could make sense. "Luxury automakers are stepping up efforts to fetch back activities related to digitisation they previously had assigned to suppliers," he said.

Autonomous

Access to high-quality maps is essential for carmakers seeking to build autonomous cars. They need detailed location data about their wider surroundings to complement input from on-board sensors to avoid obstacles and other vehicles.

Such navigation and safety features are a pre-condition for the eventual emergence of driverless vehicles in coming years.

Nokia built its mapping and location business on the back of an $8.1 billion acquisition in 2008 of US-based Navteq, a maker of geographic information systems used in the automotive industry. It was Nokia’s largest deal ever, prior to the planned Alcatel-Lucent merger.

Nokia saw adding maps to its phones as a way to differentiate its products from other high-end phone makers, including Apple, which the previous year had revolutionised the market with the launch of the iPhone. – (Reuters)