TeliaSonera Posts Rise in 3Q Profit

 Sweden (AP) – TeliaSonera Corp., the Nordic region’s largest telecommunications operator, said Tuesday profit rose 34 percent in the third quarter, boosted by stronger revenue and the sale of an operation in Africa.

Net profit was 5.05 billion kronor (euro548 million; US$697 million) in the three months through September, up from 3.76 billion kronor in the third quarter of 2005. Sales grew 4.2 percent to 23.2 billion kronor (euro2.51 billion; US$3.20 billion).

The company booked a gain of 562 million kronor (euro61 million; US$77.6 million) from the sale of its stake in African mobile operator MTN Uganda to MTN Group Ltd.

The company also said its board of directors would propose an extra dividend of 20 billion kronor (euro2.17 billion; US$2.76 billion) for 2006 in addition to an ordinary dividend in the upper range of 30 percent-50 percent of net income.

The company reiterated its guidance that both revenue and pretax profit will grow for the full year 2006.

Source- http://news.moneycentral.msn.com