Foxconn has high hopes of taking up Nokia handset manufacturing plants, says paper

Taiwan-based EMS firm Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), owning to its financial strength, has a better chance than rivals Elcoteq and Jabil to take up the handset manufacturing business from Nokia should the world's top handset vendor decide to sell its handset plants in the future, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) quoted sources at securities houses as indicating.

Two other Taiwan companies, the Compal Group and Lite-On Technology may also emerge as potential buyers, the paper said, noting that the Compal Group is currently Nokia's production partner for 3G netbooks and CDMA handsets, while Lite-On is cooperating with Nokia through handset casing maker Perlos. Lite-On acquired the Finland-based Perlos in 2007.

The assumption came after Nokia marketing head Anssi Vanjoki told Reuters recently that Nokia needs to rapidly boost its offering of mobile Internet solutions and did not rule out a sale of its core handset manufacturing business in the long term.