Ericsson’s new chief executive officer, Hans Vestberg, gets thumbs-up by telecom analysts.

Hans Vestberg is a good pick as the new chief executive officer of Ericsson, the world’s largest maker of wireless networks, as Carl-Henric Svanberg steps down, telecom analysts said.

44-year-old Hans Vestberg, currently finance officer, joined Ericsson straight out of business school and was within a short time period appointed to various international managerial positions in China, Sweden, Chile, Brazil and the US.

“Hans Vestberg is a very bright manager who was identified as a possible chief executive as early as 10 years ago,” said Pierre Ferragu, a London-based analyst with Sanford Bernstein, to Bloomberg.

Many market players still shudder when they think of Ericsson’s profit warning in October 2007 that triggered a 24 percent share drop. Just a few weeks earlier Carl-Henrik Svanberg said that demand was “strong”.

“Svanberg created a lot of bad-will with the investing community when he came out with the surprise profit warning,” Pierre Ferragu said. “I think the community will probably look at the move from a very positive angle because of that.”

Mats Bergström, analyst at the Swedish bank Nordea said to the TT newswire that the handover is “natural” and that the internal recruitment is good.

“It’s positive that Carl-Henrik leaves and that Hans steps up. There’s been talks about this for a long time”, he said.

However, Carl-Henrik Svanberg leaves the firm with the flag aloft, the commentators said.

“I’m personally a bit disappointed because I think Svanberg has done a fantastic job since 2003”, Pierre Ferragu said to Bloomberg.