Delhi HC lifts Nokia Chennai factory freeze to clear path for Microsoft takeover

An Indian court on Thursday accepted Nokia’s appeal to release its local factory after its seizure by authorities in a tax dispute, removing a hurdle for the sale of the company’s mobile phone business to Microsoft.

The Chennai plant is one of Nokia’s biggest phone-making factories. Nokia appealed the seizure and has been trying to end the dispute ahead of the closure of the 5.4 billion euro ($7.4 billion) Microsoft deal.

Nokia factory is now ‘unfrozen’ (Image credit: Getty Images)

The court asked the Finnish company to deposit 22.50 billion rupees ($367.17 million) in an escrow account, while the tax demand case will continue separately. In March, Nokia was served with a tax demand of about 20.8 billion rupees ($340.45 million) for five fiscal years starting from 2006-07, according to a March 22 notice on the Delhi High Court website. 

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Earlier, the court had extended a hearing over local tax authorities’ seizure of the Nokia factory by seeking information on the plant value, adding to concerns whether the company can transfer the property to Microsoft as part of the sale of its mobile phone business. Nokia had offered to pay a 270 million euro deposit to authorities to unfreeze assets in a tax dispute.

Microsoft’s takeover of Nokia’s device and services unit is expected to be completed in the first half of 2014.

Reuters