Preliminary acceptance level in TeliaSonera’s repurchase offer of approximately 97.9 percent
THIS PRESS RELEASE MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED OR PUBLISHED, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH AFRICA OR JAPAN, OR IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY WHERE DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLISHING IS ILLEGAL
The repurchase offer is not being made to shareholders in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Japan or to persons whose participation in the offer (i) requires additional disclosure of information or registration or other measures in addition to those required under Swedish and Finnish law, or (ii) would result in breach of applicable law or regulation. It is the duty of each person to observe restrictions resulting from foreign legislation. Documentation regarding the repurchase offer may not be distributed to these countries and TeliaSonera reserves the right to disregard any acceptances from persons in such countries.
The acceptance period in TeliaSonera's repurchase offer has expired. In a preliminary calculation, approximately 97.9 percent of the shares included in the repurchase offer have been submitted for acceptance of the offer. As payment for these shares, the company will distribute approximately SEK 10 billion to the shareholders in addition to the ordinary dividend.
"Thanks to TeliaSonera's strong cash flows and financial position, we have been able to return approximately SEK 10 billion to our shareholders. We are very pleased to be able to make this capital distribution and with the great interest shown for the repurchase offer. With the selected solution we are able to make sure that the value of the offer is realised also for passive shareholders", says Lars Nyberg, President and CEO of TeliaSonera.
Acceptance in the repurchase offer
On February 18, 2011, TeliaSonera's Board of Directors decided, based on the authorisation given by the Annual General Meeting 2010, to repurchase a maximum of 160,373,471 shares, representing approximately 3.6 percent of the shares in the company, by offering the shareholders in TeliaSonera to sell to TeliaSonera every 28th share for a cash payment of SEK 62 [1] per share. The acceptance period for the repurchase offer expired March 25, 2011. In a preliminary calculation, acceptances representing 157,060,060 shares have been submitted in the repurchase offer, which represents approximately 97.9 percent of the shares included in the offer. Approximately SEK 10 billion will be distributed to the shareholders of TeliaSonera as payment for the repurchased shares.
In accordance with the terms and conditions of the repurchase offer, Nordea will now acquire shares in the market and sell these to TeliaSonera by exercising the unexercised sales rights and distribute the realised value to the eligible holders, however, not exceeding SEK 0.4122 per sales right.
Commission-free sales procedure and surplus sales rights
The average price for sales rights sold in the commission-free sales procedure and for the surplus sales rights sold amounts to SEK 0.41221 per sales right.
Payment of proceeds
Payment of proceeds for the repurchased shares, the sales rights sold in the commission-free sales procedure and the surplus sales rights sold is expected to occur on or around April 19, 2011 to shareholders whose shares and sales rights are registered with Euroclear Sweden and on or around April 20, 2011 to shareholders whose shares and sales rights are registered with Euroclear Finland.
Other
The Board of Directors has previously decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting 2011 to decide on a reduction of the share capital through cancellation of the final number of shares repurchased in the repurchase offer.
The final number of shares repurchased in the repurchase offer and the value per sales right realised for the unexercised sales rights will be published on or around April 5, 2011.
The information is such that TeliaSonera AB may be obliged to disclose pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 1:00 p.m. (CET) on March 30, 2011.
For additional information regarding the repurchase offer, please contact:
Shareholders in Sweden
TeliaSonera shareholder service, telephone number: +46 (0)8 20 69 42
Shareholders in Finland
TeliaSonera shareholder service, telephone number: +358 (0)200 675 00
About TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera provides network access and telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey, and in Spain. TeliaSonera is also the leading European wholesale provider of cross border high quality services for voice, ip and capacity with a wholly-owned international carrier network. TeliaSonera helps people and companies communicate in an easy, efficient and environmentally friendly way. TeliaSonera creates value by focusing on becoming a company with world class customer experience, ensuring high network quality and cost efficiency. In 2010, TeliaSonera’s sales amounted to SEK 107 billion, and at the end of 2010 the total number of subscriptions was 156 million in 20 countries. Read more at www.teliasonera.com.
This press release may not be published, distributed, disseminated or in any other way sent to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Japan or to any other jurisdiction where it may be illegal to publish, distribute, disseminate or circulate this press release. This press release does not constitute an offer to buy or sell securities in any jurisdiction, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Japan.
[1] The final repurchase price for shares and the average price for sales rights payable in euro to owners whose shares and sales rights are registered with Euroclear Finland will be determined at the prevailing SEK/EUR exchange rate on or around April 14, 2011.