Lava may acquire Nokia's Chennai plant: report

Indian smart phone maker Lava is reported to be in discussions to acquire Nokia's Chennai facility, raising hopes of thousands of Nokia's former employees getting back to work.

Lava's technical team is reported to have visited the plant for a first-hand assessment and the company is expected to submit a formal proposal to Nokia by mid-December after taking all aspects into consideration, especially the tax issue, which has to be sorted out before any deal can be finalised.

The tax dispute had held up Nokia's sale and transfer of the handset manufacturing unit to Microsoft as part of a $7.2 billion deal to sell its devices business to the US company.

The dispute is now in court, and Nokia hopes to see the asset freeze imposed by the tax authorities lifted soon. Starting 1 November 2014, Microsoft stopped using Nokia's Chennai plant to manufacture its devices, which left thousands of workers stranded.

If the deal materialises, it would enhance the possibility of thousand of former workers getting reinstated at the plant.

Lava International Ltd, established in 2009, is one of the fastest-growing mobile handset companies in India. It has demonstrated quick and robust expansion since inception, showing profitability and growing sales since the first year of operations. Lava and Xolo are two brands that operate under the parent company.

Lava hopes to emerge the first global consumer brand from India by providing quality innovative products to consumers across the world.

Lava realised revenues of Rs2,909 crore ($470 million) in FY13-14 and is expected to become a $1bn company by FY14-15 end. Lava plans to spend Rs300 crore in marketing in FY 14-15.

Lava has a wide product portfolio comprising tablets, feature phones and smart phones having various models in bar and touch form factor at multiple price points to suit all categories of consumers.

Lava's of brands include IRIS series of Android-based smart phones, Discover series of Internet experience touch phones, Spark series of premium bar phones and ARC & KKT series of feature-rich budget phones.

Lava has a complete in-house product testing set-up in China and R&D setup in India. It is the only Indian mobile handset brand in the country to have invested in R&D.