TeliaSonera rejects France Télécom buyout offer

“We are saying now, because the offer is far too small”, said Tom von Weymarn, Chairman of the Board of TeliaSonera, in an interview with the Swedish news agency TT. He was responding to an offer by France Télécom to buy the Finnish and Swedish-owned telecommunications service provider.
     
France Télécom made the preliminary offer on Thursday morning. The offer values one share of TeliaSonera stock at 62.35 Swedish krona, or EUR 6.7. This would put the price of the whole company at EUR 30.3 billion. TeliaSonera’s share was quoted at EUR 5.75 at the end of trading on Wednesday.
      France Telecom describes its approach as a “search for partnership”. The offer was sent to the board of TeliaSonera, and its two biggest owners, the Swedish and Finnish states. The company emphasises that the approach was not yet a formal purchase offer as required by stock market rules.
     
If the merger were to take place, the resulting company would be the world's third-largest telecommunications company offering landline services, and the fourth-largest mobile service provider.
      Under the terms of the proposed deal, 52%would be paid in cash and 48% would be as an exchange of shares. Each shareholder would be guaranteed 63 krona a share for the first 500 shares.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Rumours of France Télécom interest in TeliaSonera send stock soaring (17.4.2008)
  France Télécom confirms interest in TeliaSonera (18.4.2008)

Links:
  TeliaSonera press release June 5th, 2008: TeliaSonera rejects indicative offer by France Telecom
  Financial times: TeliaSonera rejects France Telecom offer