TeliaSonera wins clearance for takeover of Tele2 Norway

Norwegian authorities have approved new conditions for Tele2 to sell its mobile activities in the country to TeliaSonera. The competition authority vetoed the deal in December, and the operators proposed new remedies. Under the new deal, the customer base of Network Norway will be sold to the operator ICE. Network Norway is part of Tele2 and has around 90,000 business customers. TeliaSonera also agreed to provide ICE with national roaming.

The total price for TeliaSonera to acquire the remaining assets drops to SEK 4.5 billion from SEK 5.1 billion. However, TeliaSonera said it does not see any change in the expected synergies from the deal, which it estimates at SEK 800 million by the second half of 2016. TeliaSonera also committed to providing 4G services to 98 percent of the population by next year, two years ahead of its licence terms. By this summer already, 90 percent of the country will have access to 4G.

Tele2 said it expects to complete the sale within two weeks. Tele2 will book a one-time gain of SEK 1.8 billion from the transaction. It will use the proceeds from the sale to pay an extraordinary dividend of SEK 4.5 billion.

ICE said that in addition to Network Norway’s customer base and brand, it will acquire the Officer mobile retail chain. The roaming agreement with TeliaSonera takes effect 01 March and will run for six years. The agreement includes 2G, 3G and 4G services for both Network Norway and Ice.net customers. In addition, it receives beneficial rates and conditions for site-sharing with TeliaSonera. ICE agreed last October also to buy part of Tele2’s mobile infrastucture if the sale to TeliaSonera received regulatory approval. This transaction will also now go ahead.

The conditions imposed by the regulator ensure Norway will continue to have three mobile networks. Tele2 was forced to consider a sale of its operations after it failed to acquire key spectrum rights in the auction in December 2013. In the same auction, Ice bought frequency licences in the 800, 900 and 1,800 MHz bands. Ice.net started out as a mobile broadband provider in the 450 MHz band and claims coverage of 75 percent of Norway. It started last year rolling out a LTE network.