Teliasonera

France Telecom re-assures despite profit slide

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:06:18 -0400

France Telecom reported a 19 percent decline in profit for the first half of 2008 to about $4.17 billion, along with a slight revenue increase of 1.5 percent. However, while industry observers recently have been concerned about the ongoing financial performance of Europe's largest service provider, France Telecom actually re-affirmed its prior 2008 goals and said it still plans to pay a dividend in September. The telco's attempt to acquire TeliaSonera fell apart recently and France Telecom faces some serious broadband competition in its native market, but the company seems to be holding its own for now.

For more:
- read this report at The Wall Street Journal

Related articles:
France Telecom ended its bid for TeliaSonera in June. France Telecom report
France Telecom is facing heavy competition in France. France Telecom report

TeliaSonera earnings edge up in Q2

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:09:36 -0400

TeliaSonera said it expects stable growth for the remainder of 2008 after posting a 5.7 percent increase in sales for the second quarter and revenues of $1.3 billion, up some 6 percent from a year ago.

The Nordic telco—which spurned an attempted takeover earlier this year by France Telecom—said margins for broadband services in Sweden were under pressure, hurt by the growth of mobile broadband services. CEO Lars Nyberg told Swedish radio news that he backed the board's earlier decision to reject a bid from France Telecom.

"I am glad that we can continue to grow on our own," Nyberg said.

TeliaSonera and its associated companies had some 122.9 million customers in the quarter, up 19.3 per cent from the end of the second quarter 2007.

For more:
- See the release

Related articles:
France Telecom offered $42 billion for TeliaSonera in June. France Telecom report
FT couldn't find Telia's sweetspot. France Telecom report
Why European telcos are looking to make deals. Telco report

Telia s-l-o-w-l-y growing IPTV ranks

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:38:39 -0400

Nordic telco TeliaSonera said it added just 2,000 subscribers to its IPTV service in the second quarter, admittedly a poor performance. But, the telco said, it grew IPTV subscribers 162,000 from the same point a year ago.

The Swedish-Finnish partnership has a total of 816,000 TV subscriptions, including 430,000 IPTV customers.

For more:
- See the Broadband TV News story

Related articles:
TeliaSonera rebuffed a France Telecom takeover bid TeliaSonera report
France Telecom was one of our IPTV players worth watching France Telecom report

France Telecom on the prowl after TeliaSonera debacle

Jim O'Neill — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:32:25 -0400

France Telecom isn’t letting the grass grow under its feet after withdrawing its botched bid for Nordic telco TeliaSonera, letting it be known that it plans—soon—to pursue deals for smaller companies in Ghana, Algeria and Vietnam … and maybe even in Europe. Yawn. Where have we heard that before? It could be a torrid summer for shareholders just breathing a sigh of relief that the Telia deal—which analysts said did little to advance FT’s Africa and Asia ambitions—fell apart. Since abandoning its $40 billion bid for Telia—which would have created the Continent’s largest telecom—FT’s stock has rebounded some 7 percent and Telia’s is down better than 10 percent.

France Telecom’s CFO Gervais Pellissier said the telco won’t be a bystander as consolidation continues in the industry: "We will stay in attentive observation of the situation, and if other opportunities come up, we'll definitely study them." Pellissier in June said even if the Telia deal went sour (prescient or predetermination, hmm), FT expected a “major acquisition” in the next two years.

But an acquisition to suit FT’s taste—and budget—could be hard to find.

"The issue for bigger telecom operators is that all the emerging market targets are trading at nose-bleed valuations," said analyst Mark James at Collins Stewart. "All the future growth is priced in."

For more:
- See the Wall Street Journal story
- and the New York Times story

Related articles:
France Telecom abandons Telia bid FT report
France Telecom looks for Telia’s sweet spot France Telecom report
Why European telcos are looking to deal European report

France Telecom ends bid for TeliaSonera

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:13:40 -0400

France Telecom said this morning it is walking away from its bid for TeliaSonera, after the two companies reportedly had been negotiating toward a deal over the weekend. The French telco's interest in the Nordic operator has been known for some time. It originally offered to buy the company for about $42 billion, but TeliaSonera had insisted that was not enough. France Telecom reportedly had considered increasing its bid.

With no other rivals seeking TeliaSonera's hand, it is unclear whether the companies have gone their separate ways for good, or if there is a chance talks could resume. The combination of France Telecom and TeliaSonera would have created Europe's largest telco by revenue, and would have helped France Telecom expand internationally as it faces more and more competition back home.

For more:
- check out this coverage at The Wall Street Journal

Related articles:
France Telecom offered $42 billion for TeliaSonera earlier this month France Telecom report
France Telecom was one of our IPTV players worth watching France Telecom report

France Telecom seeking to find TeliaSonera's sweet spot

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:40:10 -0400

Like a flyfisherman changing his patterns to see what'll raise a reluctant trout, France Telecom has begun recasting its takeover bid to TeliaSonera in an effort to discover just what it's going to take to get the reticent Nordic telco to bite.

The former French monopoly says it can raise its cash offer a bit, but doesn't have much wiggle room. It's also telling the Swedish and Finnish governments, which have stakes of 37.3 percent and 13.7 percent respectively, that they'll maintain some influence on the group, although with a newly configured ownership mix giving them stakes of just 6.5 percent and 2.5 percent respectively it's hard to see how much their opinions will count in the end. Finally, FT is floating the idea that a "northern headquarters group" could be located in Stockholm.

FT on June 5 offered Telia $40.6 billion, which Telia's board immediately rejected as being too low. Critics, meanwhile, question the financial and strategic value a takeover of Telia would bring France Telecom.

For more:
- See the Thompson Financial story in Forbes
- Or the Financial Times story

Related articles:
Telia holds out for more TeliaSonera report
FT needs to up its bid France Telecom report
Why European telcos are looking to make deals Telco report

France Telecom extends bid deadline for TeliaSonera

Jim O'Neill — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:27:34 -0400

From the sometimes "deadline" means "guideline" file: France Telecom has extended its "absolute deadline" of Thursday to a more genteel open-ended time frame, hoping Nordic carrier TeliaSonera would find the approach less threatening.

FT gave TeliaSonera until June 19 to begin talks when it made the $42.1 billion offer for the Swedish-Finnish telecom on June 5, saying it would walk away if they hadn't begun. But the bid was rejected immediately by TeliaSonera's board and the Swedish government--which owns slightly more than a third of the company--as being too low. FT's stock has taken a pounding since it made its original offer by investors wary of the former monopoly's poor acquisition record.

This may not exactly be an "Aha! moment," but TeliaSonera's lack of excitement over FT's takeover bid may be rooted in a now-public report from Sweden's National Audit Office that rips the government for offering an 8 percent stake in the telecom at a fire-sale price of $3 billion last year. Telia shares were sold via Deutsche Bank and UBS at nearly 12 percent below market price. " Better handling of the banks making the sale would probably have raised the government's costs, but at the same time could have raised the receipts significantly," the audit office said.

For more:
- See the story in the Financial Times
- See this Financial Times story on the audit

Related articles:
FT needs to up its bid France Telecom report
Why European telcos are looking to make deals Telco report
TeliaSonera wants a better deal TeliaSonera report

FT may dump TeliaSonera bid

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:47:25 -0400

That sucking noise France Telecom execs hear is the sound of its share price going down the drain as investors let the company know what they think about the French telco’s bid for Scandinavian provider TeliaSonera. FT shares slipped 7.72 percent in the days following its announcement it was paying $42 billion for the company. It didn’t help that TeliaSonera rejected FT’s bid like the Bachelorette sends potential suitors packing.

France Telecom’s director of finance, Gervais Pellissier, said FT wasn’t wed to the idea of acquiring TeliaSonera and could withdraw its bid if share prices continued to erode.

“We need more time to explain our project and this work has only just begun,” Pellissier said. “We are convinced this project makes sense for the two groups, but it is not indispensable for France Telecom.”

For more:
- Read the Thompson Financial story

Related articles:
FT bids $42 billion for TeliaSonera France Telecom report
France Telecom last week was looking to arrange a big loan. France Telecom report
France Telecom confirms TeliaSonera interest France Telecom report

France Telecom looking for $15.6 billion loan

Jim O'Neill — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:20:12 -0400

France Telecom has approached lenders looking to arrange some $15.6 billion in financing for an unspecified acquisition, stirring speculation that Nordic telephone group TeliaSonera is in play.

Neither France Telecom—which in April expressed interest in TS—nor TeliaSonera would comment on the rumor. The French incumbent’s CEO, Didier Lombard, earlier this month said he wasn't currently in talks to acquire TeliaSonera.

For more:
- Check out this Total Telecom report (reg. req.)

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France Telecom confirms TeliaSonera interest France Telecom report
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