Nordic telcos faced regulatory obstacles from the European authorities
Swedish telecom operator TeliaSonera and Norway’s Telenor decided to withdraw a proposed merger of their respective business units in Denmark.
The two Nordic companies said they reached the decision as they were not able to agree with the European Commission on acceptable conditions to go ahead with the merger plan. Last December, TeliaSonera and Telenor reached an agreement to merge their Danish operations.
“Since the beginning, we have been strong advocates for the need to increase investment levels in Denmark,” said Robert Andersson, EVP and head of the Europe region for TeliaSonera. “In our view, creating a market player with the scale and ability to compete and invest would ensure that customers and businesses would benefit from better quality, speed and coverage,”
The two telcos said the merger discussions have now reached a point where it is no longer possible to gain approval from the European authorities for the proposed transaction. TeliaSonera and Telenor added that they will continue to review the strategic options in the Danish market.
The two operators had offered to sell up to 40% of TT-Netvaerket, their joint network infrastructure company, to a new company in a bid to secure the approval of European Commission antitrust regulators.
Earlier this year, the European Commission had expressed concern that a joint venture between the two Scandinavian firms would result in higher prices and decreased innovation in the Danish mobile market. The merger plan would have reduce the number of players in Denmark from its current four to three.
The other two mobile operators in Denmark are TDC and Hi3G.
Smile Communications raises $365 million to expand 4G networks
In other EMEA news, African telecommunications operator Smile Communications raised $365 million of debt and equity financing. The funding is set to be used to expand Smile’s existing LTE mobile broadband networks and services.
South Africa-based Smile Communications currently provides LTE services in Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda using spectrum in the 800 MHz band.
Smile said the funding will be used on equipment and services provided by Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, a full multiprotocol label switching network, a London point of presence, expanded international backhaul services, and to fund operational expenditure and working capital.
Smile Communications COO Tom Allen recently told RCR Wireless News the firm expects to launch commercial LTE services in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2016.
