Telenor and TeliaSonera today announced their decision to merge telecom operations in Denmark.
As part of the merger agreement, Telenor and TeliaSonera will form a 50:50 joint venture.
The new entity will have a combined mobile subscriber base of around 3.5 million, market share of approximately 40 percent and revenues of more than DKK 9 billion.
Factors such as pressure on revenues and profitability that limited the room for investments and innovation forced Telenor and TeliaSonera to merge their telecom business.
Since 2012, Telenor and TeliaSonera cooperated in Denmark through their jointly owned mobile network.
They will be achieving annual efficiency gains of above DKK 800 million, with full effect from 2019. The largest areas of synergies are envisaged for distribution, sales & marketing and call centers, general & administrative cost, network and IT. Integration costs are expected at around DKK 0.8 billion during 2015-2017.
“By combining the assets and customer bases of Telenor and TeliaSonera in Denmark, the joint venture will become a robust operator. We will be able to offer our customers a high-quality network with outstanding connectivity and the best customer experience in Denmark,” said Kjell Morten Johnsen, EVP and head of Telenor Region Europe.
Following the merger, both Telenor and TeliaSonera promise to offer better network quality to their customers.
The new company will have a new CEO.
“We are making a necessary and natural move by forming a joint venture with Telenor building on the network partnership we already have with them. By joining forces we can secure investments in Denmark, to the benefit not only of our customers but to the Danish society as a whole,” said Robert Andersson, EVP and head of Region Europe in TeliaSonera.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
