As it was previously reported, Nokia has agreed to sell and lease back its head office building in Espoo, Finland on a long-term lease to Finland-based Exilion. The company expects to complete the sale by the end of 2012.

The selling price is EUR 170 million.

"We had a comprehensive sales process with both Finnish and foreign investors and we are very pleased with this outcome. As we have said before, owning real estate is not part of Nokia's core business and when good opportunities arise we are willing to exit these types of non-core assets. We are naturally continuing to operate in our head office building on a long-term basis," said Timo Ihamuotila, CFO, Nokia.

Nokia has operated in the building since 1997. The 48,000 m2 building, designed by architect Pekka Helin, is located in Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland.

Nokia's announcement comes amid fierce competition in the smartphone market in which the former No.1 phone maker has been edged out by Samsung and Apple's iPhone. Nokia has already announced 10,000 job cuts and is streamlining operations to save 1.6 billion Euros by the end of 2013.