Ningbo Bird Co., China's biggest handset maker, currently had no plans to buy the mobile phone division of Germany's Siemens, a company executive said.

Siemens, the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker, is expected to announce a "concept" for handling its global handset division at an annual general meeting scheduled for Jan. 27.

Ningbo Bird, which has shares listed in Shanghai, had been suggested in a German newspaper report last week as a potential buyer of the unit, in a deal similar to the acquisition last year of International Business Machines Corp.'s personal computer business by China's Lenovo Group Ltd.

An executive at the Zhejiang Province-based Ningbo Bird scotched the rumors.

"We have no plan to buy Siemens' unit now," the executive, who asked not to be named, said. "We have a cooperation with Siemens now, but only in sales," he said.

Siemens, Germany's largest technology and engineering firm, and Ningbo Bird are already in business together in China through a distribution agreement.

In that partnership, the German company's handsets have access to retail outlets in China operated by Ningbo Bird.

(Shenzhen Daily January 11, 2005)