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Siemens sells mobile phones unit to BenQ

REUTERS, Frankfurt/Taipei
German engineering giant Siemens is selling its mobile phones unit to much smaller Taiwanese rival BenQ, it said on Tuesday, drawing a line under hundreds of millions of euros of losses.
The deal -- which will cost Siemens 350 million euros ($431 million) before tax -- will enable BenQ to double its annual revenues to $10 billion, the company said, and catapult it out of relative obscurity into the world's top 10 mobile handset vendors.
BenQ will use the Siemens brand name for five years and will take over some high-profile sports sponsorship contracts, including one with star soccer team Real Madrid.
It will also take on 6,000 Siemens employees -- half of whom are in Germany, where many have job guarantees until 2006 negotiated last year in exchange for longer working hours.
The company's headquarters will remain in Munich, Germany.
In return Siemens will acquire a 2.5-percent stake in fast-growing BenQ -- Taiwan's top maker of computer equipment and mobile phones -- with the issue of 50 million euros worth of new BenQ shares.
The companies did not disclose further financial details, but Siemens executives were due to meet with reporters and analysts' later on Tuesday. The deal is expected to close in the September quarter if approved by BenQ shareholders and competition regulators.
"With this partnership we have found a sustainable perspective for our mobile phones business. BenQ and Siemens complement one another ideally," Siemens Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld said in a statement.
Siemens investors welcomed the deal, as it brings an end to months of uncertainty over the
future of the mobile-phones unit, which has been plagued by quality problems with its more expensive models and price pressure at the low end of the market.
The unit -- Siemens' only remaining consumer business in a portfolio that stretches from turbines to trams -- brought in 5 billion euros of revenues out of Siemens total of 75 billion in its last fiscal year, but made an operating loss of 152 million euros.
By 1141 GMT Siemens shares were trading 1.6 percent higher at 62.21 euros, leading the gainers on Germany's blue-chip DAX index, which was up 0.7 percent.
It was clear that Siemens could not succeed with the mobile-phones unit. With this solution the issue is off the table. That will bring calm to the company and to the shares," said SES Research analyst Oliver Drebing.