TeliaSonera moves to consolidate Baltic operations

Nordic telco TeliaSonera has made an offer for all the shares in Lithuanian telco Teo and Estonia’s Eesti Telekom that it does not already own.

TeliaSonera currently holds a 60% stake in both Teo and Eesti Telekom via Amber Teleholding and Baltic Tele respectively.

The Sweden-based telco is offering LTL527m (€154m), or LTL1.83 per share, for the remaining shares in Teo, representing a premium of about 50% on the Lithuanian company’s share price, and EEK5.117bn (€327m), or EEK93 a share, for the remaining shares in Eesti Telekom.  

TeliaSonera said the offers were in line with their strategy to increase ownership in core business holdings, and said that both companies would benefit from TeliaSonera’s strong financial position. The telco said it regarded both Estonia and Lithuania as ‘home markets’ and would make further investments in both countries going forward.