Dow Jones Newswires reports that Timo Ihamuotila, CFO of Nokia, has said the company is “willing to talk to parties who could bring some additional capital to Nokia Siemens Networks,” following earlier speculation that both Nokia and Siemens were considering their roles in the venture. Ihamuotila says that “there has been some unsolicited interest from different parties on NSN, and clearly as shareholders we are willing to talk to people who could bring some new assets, capital or ideas into this industry.” He also says that “both shareholders want to provide an environment where the NSN management can currently concentrate on executing the strategy and improve the results.” His comments echo an earlier statement from Rajeev Suri, CEO of NSN, who said in August 2010 that there had been “unsolicited expressions of interest” from private-equity firms interested in taking a stake in the venture.

Yesterday, Nokia’s results indicated an operating loss at NSN of EUR282 million in its most recent quarter, down from a prior-year loss of EUR1.1 billion, on sales of EUR2.94 billion, up 7 percent year-on-year (although sales were down 3 percent sequentially).  It said that the increase was driven by improved 3G network sales as well as network planning and optimisation services and network operations activities. The sequential decline was “primarily driven by a seasonally weaker infrastructure market.” It was also noted there has been an “improvement in the industry-wide issue related to security clearances in India which was preventing the completion of product sales to customers.” It said that Nokia and Siemens expect NSN to maintain its market share in 2010, while reducing operating expenses and production overheads by EUR500 million by the end of 2011, compared with 2009 levels.