OSLO, Norway-Norway’s Telenor entered an agreement to acquire 53.5 percent of the shares in Sonofon, the second-largest mobile operator in Denmark, from GN Great Nordic for about $1.7 billion. Telenor also will assume Great Nordic’s loan to Sonofon amounting to about $70.6 million.
BellSouth Corp. owns the remaining 46.5 percent of Sonofon.
The acquisition is part of Telenor’s international expansion plans, following its failed merger with Sweden’s Telia last year. Telenor is preparing for a stock listing, while Telia last week launched the Nordic region’s largest initial public offering on the Stockholm stock exchange, valuing the company at about $29 billion.
“The investment in Sonofon confirms our commitment to become a significant player in the European telecommunications market,” said Telenor Chief Executive Officer and President Tormod Hermansen.
Sonofon, a nationwide Global System for Mobile communications 900 MHz operator, has about 900,000 subscribers in Denmark, about 30 percent of the wireless market. The carrier launched High Speed Circuit Switched Data service in October 1999 and Wireless Application Protocol service in December 1999. Short message service represented 3 percent of its revenues last December.
“The market for mobile Internet services will be much bigger than the plain old telephony market,” said Sonofon CEO Ulrik Bulow. “Sonofon intends to dominate the development of this new market in Denmark, and with Telenor as our new strategic partner, we have even better conditions to realize our visions.”
Denmark has a population of 5.4 million people and a mobile penetration of about 57 percent. Telenor has investments in mobile operators across Europe and in Asian markets. The Norwegian company purchased a stake in Thai wireless operator Total Access Communications last month.
The purchase is subject to approvals from Danish and European authorities.
