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TeliaSonera in talks to purchase Polish operator Play (Poland)

  • September 2nd, 2008
  • 8:10 am

TeliaSonera is in negotiations to purchase the Polish mobile phone operator Play from a private equity fund Novator.
According to Novator’s managing partner Constantine Gonticas, the reports are not true that the fund, 75% of Play, was planning to sell the company.
Play’s spokesman Marcin Gruszka and TeliaSonera’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
Play plans to boost the number of it’s subscribers this years to 2 million from 1.4 million and is planning to triple revenues to 800 million zlotys ($351.3 million) and expects break even by the end of the decade.

   

iPhone 3G in Estonia by Teliasonera

  • August 11th, 2008
  • 11:45 am

TeliaSonera and EMT proclaimed that they will bring iPhone 3G to Estonia this August.

Features of iPhone 3G:

  • IPhone 3G combines all the features of iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast
  • Built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services
  • iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third party applications available through the new App Store.

“The launch of iPhone 3G represents another strategic step for us in the development of the mobile broadband market and strengthens our position in the Nordic and Baltic region,” said Kenneth Karlberg, President, business area mobility service, TeliaSonera. “With iPhone 3G, we offer our customers an amazing new way to meet their demands for access, speed and mobility,” he added.

TeliaSonera’s rise in profit, credit to Russia & Turkey (Stockholm)

  • July 25th, 2008
  • 2:10 pm

TeliaSonera (Stockholm-based telecoms group) reported rise in net profit by 7.8% and total revenues climbed 5.7%. EBITDA in the second quarter (excluding one-off items) increased by 6.1%, widening the EBITDA margin slightly to 31.6% from 31.4% in Q2 2007. 

TeliaSonera’s growth was heavily driven by mobile operations in Russia, Turkey and its Eurasia division. The Swedish former wireline monopoly’s CEO Lars Nyberg said that reducing expenses is imperative to the company’s strategy going forward to offset the slowdown in its domestic growth and a general decline in fixed line services. ‘The overall market trends were essentially unchanged and we reported a satisfactory set of numbers for the second quarter. For the first time in more than a year, we managed to increase our margins,’ he added.

   

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov borrowed $1.5 Billion (Russia)

  • July 25th, 2008
  • 1:35 pm

To finace the purchase of shares in mobile-phone company OAO MegaFon, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov borrowed about $1.5 billion. Acording to media reports, Usmanov borrowed the sum from OAO Sberbank to pay for 58.9 percent in OAO Telecominvest, a company which holds 31.3 percent in MegaFon.

Usmanov’s company AF Telecom, Telecominvest and TeliaSonera AB signed an agreement, under which Telecominvest used 23.1 percent in MegaFon as collateral for the loan. Telecominvest also pledged 8.2 percent of the shares in MegaFon to TeliaSonera.

Sweden’s TeliaSonera owns 26.1 percent in OAO Telecominvest and has 35.6 percent in MegaFon, Russia’s third-largest mobile phone company. Usmanov controls 73.9 percent in Telecominvest.

   

TeliaSonera not moving until FT increases its bid, paper says (France,Sweden)

  • June 13th, 2008
  • 2:36 pm

The Financial Times reports that TeliaSonera is not ready to talk to France Telecom (FT) until the French firm increases its takeover bid. On 5 June FT announced a EUR41.1 billion (USD63.4 billion) cash and stock deal for the Nordic giant and said it would not increase the offer. However, the following week people familiar with the situation said the French telco was willing to up its offer if TeliaSonera agreed to hold talks. The paper says that talks would have ‘no basis’ as the TeliaSonera board has dismissed the original offer and no enhancement has been proffered by FT to change the status quo.

   

Telenor CEO ‘no comment’ on Telia tie-up (Sweden)

  • June 10th, 2008
  • 2:34 pm

The CEO of Telenor, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, declined to comment this morning on reports that the Norwegian telecoms group was interested in buying Swedish-based rival TeliaSonera. A member of TeliaSonera’s board was quoted by the Norwegian press as saying that Telenor was considering making a bid for the larger group after TeliaSonera rejected France Telecom’s friendly USD41 billion takeover offer last week.

   
 

France Telecom close to walking away from TeliaSonera proposal (Sweden)

  • June 9th, 2008
  • 3:12 pm

The Financial Times reports that France Telecom (FT) has warned that it would walk away from its proposed EUR26.5 billion (USD41.6 billion) takeover of TeliaSonera unless the Nordic operator rapidly signalled its interest in a tie-up. FT’s shares have lost around 10% of their value since the board of TeliaSonera last Thursday rejected a friendly takeover offer by FT which would have valued the Scandinavian telecoms giant at around SEK282 billion (USD47 billion). The Paris-based operator submitted an ‘indicative’ SEK56.225 per share cash and stock offer, amounting to a cash transaction for around 52% of the Stockholm-based firm’s stock, with the remainder being paid for in shares, at a ratio of three new FT shares for every eleven TeliaSonera shares. However, TeliaSonera’s board (backed by a Swedish cabinet member) unanimously agreed that the offer ‘substantially’ undervalued the company. Reuters writes that FT’s Chief Financial Officer Gervais Pellissier told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that FT had no plans to raise the shares-and-cash bid. He was quoted as saying: ‘There are two grounds on which we could withdraw the offer. The first is that it will not be received as friendly by the shareholders and management of TeliaSonera…The second would be the continuation of market turbulence. If our share price continues to plunge, that would make the operation difficult.’

   

 

France Telecom bid for TeliaSonera ‘too low,’ says official (Sweden)

  • June 6th, 2008
  • 2:26 pm

The Swedish government believes that a €33 billion (US$51 billion) bid for operator TeliaSonera by France Telecom was too low, an AFP report said, quoting Swedish Finance Minister Mats Odell.

The Swedish state is the largest shareholder in the company, holding a 37.3% stake, the AFP report said.

“My preliminary conclusion is that the bid from France Telecom does not correspond to TeliaSonera’s full potential and worth. I thus share the TeliaSonera board’s interpretation of today’s bid,” Odell said in a statement.

The TeliaSonera board of directors decided unanimously to reject the France Telecom proposal, worth about €33 billion, saying it “substantially undervalues the company.”

The Swedish state has previously announced plans to sell its stake in the phone group, along with its holdings in five other companies. In May 2007 it sold 8% of TeliaSonera to institutional investors.

Swedish institutions and companies own 18.2% of the company, which came about through a 2002 merger between Swedish Telia and Finnish Sonera, while the Finnish state owns 13.7%, the report said.

   

TeliaSonera to offer iPhone in Scandinavia and Baltics

  • May 28th, 2008
  • 2:17 pm

TeliaSonera signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

No other information was provided.

TeliaSonera provides telecom services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in Spain and the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey.

   
 

Telenor eyes merger with TeliaSonera

  • April 30th, 2008
  • 12:27 pm

Creation of Nordic super-operator on the cards once again, but competition issues would likely derail any deal.
Telenor is considering a tie-up with TeliaSonera and has hired advisors to look at a possible deal, the newswires reported Tuesday, citing Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

The paper, which did not name its sources, said the Norwegian incumbent has appointed Nordea and JP Morgan to analyse the situation, adding that the two telcos have already held talks.

Both Telenor and TeliaSonera declined to comment on the rumours.

The news comes two weeks after it emerged that France Telecom is interested in taking over TeliaSonera.

Having initially refused to comment, the French telco later admitted it has take exploratory steps towards TeliaSonera, describing the operator as potential strategic opportunity. It also expressed interest in other possible targets, including Telenor.

However, France Telecom has not made any formal bid.

While Telenor and TeliaSonera might appear to be a good fit culturally, a merger would face heavy scrutiny from competition bodies. Both companies have mobile operations in the other’s home market, and both offer mobile services in Denmark, for example, while there is also cross-ownership with their emerging market assets.

History is not on the side of a tie-up between the pair.

Sweden’s Telia agreed to merge with Telenor in October 1999, but the deal fell apart two months later as the two governments failed to resolve various issues surrounding the deal.

Telenor admitted to a second attempt in 2002. Following the tie-up between Telia and Sonera to create TeliaSonera, the Norwegian operator revealed that it had taken part in secret talks earlier that year over a possible three-way merger.

The path would be unlikely to be any smoother this time around.

The Norwegian government still holds a 53.97% stake in Telenor, while Sweden and Finland claim shares of 37.3% and 13.7% respectively in TeliaSonera.

Quoting Norwegian analyst firm SEB Enskilda, Reuters also noted that the Norwegian government would be unlikely to agree to the deal, since it would result in it losing some control of Telenor, as the telco would have to pay for part of the acquisition in shares.