The Vertu brand is widely known for its mobile phones, which are distinguished not so much by technical characteristics as by quality of finish and exclusivity. This year, the company that produces "status" products has changed the owner, although for the user and the buyer of Vertu, this has not yet changed.
Until the middle of this year, Vertu was owned by the Finnish concern Nokia, which produces various telecommunications equipment, among which mobile phones occupy the lion's share. The luxury phone company was a separate division headquartered in England. It was founded 14 years ago by Frank Nuovo, Nokia's chief designer. However, in recent years, the Finnish concern, like many manufacturers of mobile communications, began to experience financial difficulties. They forced them to look for additional funds even at the expense of a massive layoff of workers at Nokia factories around the world. At the same time, the production of Vertu mobile phones continues to grow steadily and this division of the Finnish concern is one of the most liquid assets of Nokia.
In 2011, Nokia decided to improve its financial position by selling a larger stake to Vertu. Searches and lengthy negotiations led to the conclusion in the summer of 2012 of an agreement with the Swedish investment company EQT Partners AB. The official buyer of 90% of Vertu's assets was one of the 14 EQT Partners funds called EQT VI. The Swedish concern was founded relatively recently - in 1994 - and is intended to invest the money of a group of private investors in transactions for the purchase or re-profiling of medium and large enterprises. The transactions known so far were carried out in Europe, the United States and China, and the amounts that the Swedish fund invested in them independently or with other partners were at least 50 million euros. As a rule, after the acquisition of a company, a representative of the new owner is included in its governing body, and the changes necessary for the investor are introduced into the company's policy. It became known that EQT Partners plans to invest additional money in the development of new models of Vertu phones and expansion of the retail sales network.
