Nokia completed the sale of its HERE mapping business to a consortium of car makers today, ahead of its previous expectation.

Yesterday Nokia said it had received all of the regulatory approvals necessary for the sale to Audi, BMW and Daimler. It previously said the transaction would close in the first quarter of 2016.

Nokia announced the deal in August 2015 (valued at the time at €2.8 billion), after a strategic review which saw a number of potential buyers mooted.

But the car makers came out on top, and have said that HERE will be operated as an open and independent company beyond the interference of shareholders. The unit is participating in a number of industry groups working in areas such as standardising data transmission from vehicles to the cloud.

It has also been suggested that venture capital companies may look to make an investment in HERE.

In a statement today, Nokia noted: “Nokia received net proceeds from the transaction of approximately €2.55 billion at closing, which is consistent with Nokia’s earlier estimated net proceeds of slightly above €2.5 billion. Final adjustments will be made based on the verified closing balance sheet. As previously announced, Nokia expects to book a gain on the sale and a related release of cumulative foreign exchange translation differences totalling approximately €1 billion as a result of the transaction.”

The completion of the HERE sale forms another part of Nokia’s transformation, following the earlier sale of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft. This week, the company got the green-light from shareholders for the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, to create an emboldened network infrastructure giant. That deal is expected to close in Q1 2016.