Nokia sells Vertu luxury phone division to private equity firm

News that Nokia planned to sell its Vertu luxury handset brand to a private equity firm broke earlier this week, and now the company has announced it officially. Nokia is selling the whole division to EQT VI, but it is holding on to a ten percent share in the brand.

Nokia has been trying to sell Vertu since at least December of last year, and it had been in talks with numerous private equity firms before inking the deal with EQT. The terms of the purchase were not officially disclosed, but earlier reports said that EQT was paying Nokia 200 million EUR (US$249 million) for the Vertu brand.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year, pending regulatory approval.