Nokia marked the first day of its combined operation with Alcatel-Lucent by detailing the “fundamental transformation” the company has been through.

Risto Siilasmaa (pictured), chairman of the board, said: “Over 99 per cent of our more than 100 000 employees did not carry a Nokia badge just three short years ago. Our earnings, market cap and growth opportunities have multiplied. We have a powerful guiding vision of the Programmable World, an extremely capable management team and a strong ambition to innovate and lead. We move forward with excitement, confidence and an ability to continue to challenge the status quo.”

The statement didn’t say much about another transformational deal – the sale of the once dominant Devices & Services unit to Microsoft. But it certainly seems that Nokia was the winner out of that transaction too: the unit has been dogged by job cuts, writedowns and losses under its new owner.

The company has also sold its Here mapping business to a consortium of car makers.

Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia, said that with the move toward 5G and IoT, “combining with Alcatel-Lucent comes at just the right time: we can align our product and technology roadmaps for the next generation of network technology at the outset, allowing us to take full advantage of the coming opportunities and better serve customers including communication service providers, governments, internet players and large enterprises”.

With Mobile World Congress looming on the horizon, Nokia said it “will share more about its vision of expanding the human possibilities of the connected world, and how both existing and new customers can use technology to improve people’s lives” at the event.

Separately, Nokia reopened its public exchange offer in France and the US for outstanding Alcatel-Lucent shares not already tendered by owners. It said that it “firmly believes that it is in the best interests” of shareholders to participate.

It said that while it has a plan to optimise its capital structure and return excess capital to shareholders, including a dividend, it has “no plans to provide capital returns to remaining holders of Alcatel-Lucent securities”.