By Jussi Rosendahl and Leila Abboud
HELSINKI/PARIS (Reuters) - NOKIA (NOK1V.FI)will buy Alcatel-LUCENT (LU.NY)in an all-share deal that values its smaller French rival at 15.6 billion euros ($16.6 billion), building up its telecom equipment business to compete with market leader Ericsson.
Nokia's takeover of Alcatel-Lucent will redefine a telecom equipment sector suffering weak growth prospects and pressure from low-cost Chinese players Huawei [HWT.UL] and ZTE.
The combined company will have about 114,000 employees and combined sales of around 26 billion euros. In mobile equipment it will rank a strong second, with global market share of 35 percent, behind Sweden's Ericsson with 40 percent and ahead of Huawei's 20 percent, according to Bernstein Research.
The Finnish company will give Alcatel-Lucent shareholders 0.55 shares in the combined company for each of their old shares, resulting in 33.5 percent of the entity being in Alcatel's hands and Nokia having the remaining 66.5 percent if the tender offer is fully taken up.
Nokia initially approached Alcatel-Lucent about buying only the wireless business but was rebuffed leading to the broader deal, Alcatel boss Michel Combes told Reuters in an interview.
Nokia shares rose 3 percent at the opening, while Alcatel-Lucent fell 11 percent, reversing trends on Tuesday when the talks were first acknowledged by the companies.
Alcatel shareholders were disappointed because they hoped for a part-cash offer, while Nokia holders were relieved that the group had not overpaid by making the offer all in shares, a trader said.
FRENCH JOBS PLEDGE
Nokia pledged to keep France as "a vibrant center of the combined company" and not to cut jobs beyond what Alcatel had already planned, especially protecting research and development sites at Villarceaux and Lannion.
Alcatel-Lucent has some 6,000 employees in France. Maintaining jobs was a key demand of the French state for its backing of the deal.
Nokia sold its once-dominant handset business last year after struggling to compete with smartphones by Apple and Samsung. That deal left it with the network unit, a smaller map unit and a bunch of technology patents.
The deal will be finalised in the first half of 2016 and is expected to result in 900 million euros of operating cost savings by the end of 2019, the companies said on Wednesday.
Some analysts said the deal carried significant risks. The track record of mergers in the sector has been poor over the past decade because of the difficulty of cutting costs in an R&D intensive business.
"Nokia's risk profile will increase considerably... The risk is that the merger will become a long and rocky road and investors lose their patience following through the integration program that will take years," said analyst Mikael Rautanen from Inderes Equity Research.
Other analysts, however, noted that Nokia and its Chief Executive Rajeev Suri have a good record on restructuring.
"There is no reason to doubt that this deal too wouldn't increase shareholder value... We know that there are risks related to France and the cost cuts, but I believe that Nokia has calculated a margin of safety to the deal price," said strategist Jukka Oksaharju from Nordnet brokerage.
Separately, Nokia confirmed it was exploring the sale of its HERE mapping unit, which analysts value at up to 6.9 billion euros.
The new Nokia will have stronger exposure to the important North American market, with key contracts with AT&T and Verizon and a fast-growing Internet routing business.
"The combined company is expected to have a stronger growth profile than Nokia's current addressable market," Nokia said, predicting a sales growth rate of about 3.5 percent for 2014 to 2019.
JPMorgan advised Nokia on the takeover, and boutique investment bank Zaoui & Co. advised Alcatel-Lucent.
(Editing by James Regan and Keith Weir)