TeliaSonera January-December 2008

Record high fourth-quarter and full-year earnings

Fourth quarter
• Net sales rose 12.7 percent to SEK 28,096 million (24,921). Organic growth in local currencies was 4.5 percent.
• EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, increased 14.8 percent to SEK 8,272 million (7,208) and the margin to 29.4 percent (28.9).
• Operating income, excluding non-recurring items, increased 20.8 percent to SEK 7,678 million (6,358).
• Net income attributable to shareholders of the parent company increased to SEK 5,644 million (4,467) and earnings per share to SEK 1.26 (0.99).
• Free cash flow increased to SEK 4,918 million (1,839), mainly due to higher EBITDA, the timing of Turkcell Holding’s dividend payment and lower income taxes.
• During the quarter the number of subscriptions grew by more than 6.8 million to 134.8 million, with 3.4 million new subscriptions in the majority-owned opera-tions and over 3.4 million in the associated companies.

Full year
• Net sales rose 7.5 percent to SEK 103,585 million (96,344). Organic growth in local currencies was 3.9 percent.
• EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, increased 6.2 percent to SEK 32,954 million (31,021) and the margin was 31.8 percent (32.2).
• Operating income, excluding non-recurring items, increased 9.3 percent to SEK 30,041 million (27,478).
• Net income attributable to shareholders of the parent company increased to SEK 19,011 million (17,674) and earnings per share to SEK 4.23 (3.94).
• Free cash flow was SEK 11,328 million (13,004).
• The number of subscriptions was 134.8 million at year-end with 7.5 million new subscriptions in the majority-owned operations and 12.5 million in the associ-ated companies, compared to year-end 2007.
• The Board of Directors proposes an ordinary dividend of SEK 1.80 per share (1.80), equaling a total of SEK 8,083 million (8,083).


Comments by Lars Nyberg, President and CEO

“We reported record high earnings for the fourth quarter and the full year. Reported growth as well as organic growth in local currencies was higher in 2008 than the year before, but we did not fully reach our ambition of maintaining the EBITDA-margin level.

When I joined TeliaSonera in 2007, I said we need to change our behavior in order to succeed in one of the world’s most rapidly changing and demanding industries. In 2008, we strengthened the Leadership Team and introduced a more stringent performance and consequence management. As a result, I am starting to see a change in how we respond to external trends and strive to achieve operational excellence.


We are pleased that customer satisfaction, according to the European Performance Satisfaction Index (EPSI), improved in most of our Nordic and Baltic businesses in 2008. In addition, we further strengthened our market positions in Eurasia and became market leader also in Tajikistan and Georgia.

During the year, we invested in future growth by expanding our presence to Nepal and Cambodia. Mobility Services delivered continued growth with improving margins, despite regulatory intervention and intense competition. The reduced profitability in Broadband Services shows, however, that the efficiency measures we are taking are necessary as we cannot have structurally higher costs than our competitors.

We need to be prepared for a potentially drawn-out economic downturn that may affect consumer and corporate behavior. The worsening economic trends, particularly in the Baltic countries, had no material effect on usage in our markets in 2008. However, we experienced somewhat slower growth than expected in some Eurasian markets in January 2009, although it is too early to draw any conclusion based on one month.”


Questions regarding the reports:
TeliaSonera AB
Investor Relations
SE–106 63 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 8 504 550 00
Fax +46 8 611 46 42
www.teliasonera.com/ir