Nokia has started a process to sell off its headquarters outside Helsinki as the stricken Finnish mobile phone maker urgently looks for ways to conserve cash.

The loss making company is looking to sell and lease back the building that employs 1,800 people in a move that could raise €200m-€300m, according to estimates.

The move comes amid intense scrutiny of Nokia’s cash position after it burned through liquidity at a very fast pace around the turn of the year. In the second quarter of this year, its net cash position fell 14 per cent to €4.2bn due entirely to a dividend payment to investors.

“We have ample cash resources to do what we need. But to cut costs and conserve cash we are looking at all possible options with no stones being left unturned. One of those is the possibility of selling our headquarters,” Nokia said.

Nokia moved out of central Helsinki in 1996 to a striking glass and steel building on the edge of the sea in the neighbouring town of Espoo that it expanded in 2001 to its current size. It pointed to other Finnish companies that had sold and leased back their headquarters in recent years, including Kone, Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene.

Nokia has sent documents out to interested parties but a sale is not imminent. It had earlier said, when it announced its second-quarter results, that it was looking to sell its property holdings around the world. “We are not a real estate company and we would rather invest in our core operations,” it said.

But analysts remain concerned about the level of cash burn as the company fights for survival following a series of disappointing product launches in an attempt to compete with Apple’s iPhone and companies using Google’s Android platform.

Credit analysts stress that technology companies can go bust with positive cash balances, pointing to Nortel, which had several billions of dollars in cash on its balance sheet when it went bankrupt in 2009. Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, said in August when it downgraded Nokia again that it expected the group to end this year with less than €3bn in net cash.

Nokia in return has touted its ability to squeeze cash out of its business, using advanced royalty payments on some of its patents to avoid a worse cash burn in the second quarter. It also has an undrawn credit line of €1.5bn, which is available until March 2016.

Analysts have speculated that Nokia will soon have to cut its dividend to protect its remaining cash. Its first debt repayment is for €1.25bn in early 2014.

afam4eva: Are they that poor that they would have to sell their headquarters?

CLIQBOY: Poor management

jedisco: This is the most biased and untrue version of this story I've seen.

This move is clearly a very popular option in Nordic countries and its been noted that many other Finish companies making much more profit than Nokia have done thesame thing. There its much cheaper to sell it and rent it out again as you cut out on alot of tax and maintenance fees.
This is what Nokia is doing as they are clearly not moving out.
Y'all need to get informed before making blind comments.

kerzhim: I won't blame dem for wanting to sell dea HQ in order to raise money. Technology is rapidly growing and dey find it so difficult to match wit the likes of SAMSUNG, GOOGLE, BLACKBERRY and APPLE wen it cums to productivity. They are far behind.

kellystech: Dey should just give up dia ego and sign contract with google to produce android, dem go sell scatter cos people still loves dia product

intapo: how com i no hear about dis....i no believe u cos (1) i work near there at aladin club under stockmann building in dat area(2) news papers na free n e full 4 metro, tram n bus... "yle" suomi tv 4 don announce am(3) anytin weh dey go on 4 vanta, espoo n helsinki dey go round quick quick...no com fall nokia hand 4 nairaland....i use GOD beg u.

kellystech: Dey should just give up dia ego and sign contract with google to produce android, dem go sell scatter cos people still loves dia product

Lord_Reed:

Take it easy man. No one says Nokia is moving out, read the article well. It clearly states that Nokia will lease back the property.

Lord_Reed:

Relax man Nokia hasn't made a public advert yet so you not see it in the Dailies yet.

jedisco: This is the most biased and untrue version of this story I've seen.

This move is clearly a very popular option in Nordic countries and its been noted that many other Finish companies making much more profit than Nokia have done thesame thing. There its much cheaper to sell it and rent it out again as you cut out on alot of tax and maintenance fees.
This is what Nokia is doing as they are clearly not moving out.

As for the doom day prophets, you should know that apart from Apple and perhaps Samsung, Nokia has a much better chance of survival than say BB, HTC, Motorolla or the mobile division of Sony, and most other OEMs.
They've got enough patents to last a life time. Also their navigation and map service is doing very well with more than 4 in 5 (85%) of inbuilt navigation systems in vehicles using it. Currently being used by Mercedes, Volks Wagen, Hyundai, Audi Pioneer, Oracle, Bing, Garmin, Groupon, Amazon and a whole lot more.
So even in the most unlikely of situations where their new Lumia phones don't sell too well, they will still be around for quite some time.

Y'all need to get informed before making blind comments.