Nokia Siemens gets China nod for Motorola unit buy*****

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HELSINKI, April 21 (Reuters): Chinese regulators have approved Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) acquisition of Motorola Solutions' telecom network gear business, clearing the last major hurdle for the deal to go through. The closing of the deal has been delayed twice following a lengthy review by China's antitrust authorities. "It's a big hurdle out of the way. We aim to still close the deal on April 29," said a Nokia Siemens spokesman. April 13, Motorola cut the sale price to $975 million from $1.2 billion to ensure the deal goes through. NSN hopes the deal strengthens it against its key Chinese rivals and make it the second-largest mobile telecom gear maker ahead of China's Huawei. Analysts said the delay was holding up talks by NSN's parents with private equity firms over the sale of a minority stake in the venture. Nokia and Siemens said last August they had been approached by private equity firms interested in buying a stake in NSN. Siemens has said taking the venture public was possible in the medium term. Meanwhile, Nokia warned on Thursday operating profit margins at its key phone unit would slip in coming quarters after reporting better than expected January-March earnings. January-March underlying earnings per share fell to 0.13 euro from 0.14 euro a year earlier, beating analysts' average forecast for 0.10 euro. Nokia's market share fell to 29 per cent from 33 per cent a year earlier as nimbler Asian rivals ate into its dominant position in cheaper phones and it continued to lose out in more expensive smartphones to Apple and others. To turn around its smartphone fortunes, Nokia's new Chief Executive Stephen Elop in February unveiled a deal to start using Microsoft software instead of its own Symbian platform.