Nokia has announced that it has gained control of French rival Alcatel-Lucent following a €15.6bn (£11.5bn) all-share offer, with the two telecom manufacturers set to merge this month following the deals approval.

The French stock market authority, Autorité des Marchés Financiers, published the interim results of the initial offer period, declaring it successful and revealing that Nokia now holds almost 80 per cent of outstanding Alcatel-Lucent shares.

The acquisition will place Nokia in a strong position in the telecom network gear market, where slowing growth and steep competition with Ericsson and Huawei have pressured prices. While Nokia was one of the pioneers of mobile phone manufacturing, telecoms has become its primary focus following the sale of its handset unit to Microsoft and its Here mapping unit to a consortium of European automakers.

“We are delighted that the offer has been successful and that Alcatel-Lucents investors share our confidence in the future of the combined company,” said Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia. “We will move quickly to combine the two companies and execute our integration plans.

“As of 14 January, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will offer a combined end-to-end portfolio of the scope and scale to meet the needs of our global customers. We will have unparalleled R&D and innovation capabilities, which we will use to lead the world in creating next-generation technology and services.”