Telenor: sells Central and Eastern European business

(CercleFinance.com) - Telenor said it will sell its Central and Eastern Europe business to Czech investment group PPF for about 2.
8 billion euros, which has sent its shares up slightly on Thursday.

The deal includes wholly-owned mobile operations in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia and the technology service provider Telenor Common Operation, the Norwegian telecoms group said.

The CEE operations contributed approximately 9% of Telenor Group's revenues in 2017, and 8% of operating income (EBITDA). They represent over 9 million customers and around 3,500 employees.

As a result of this transaction, Telenor intends to distribute a special dividend of 4.40 Norwegian kronor per share, in addition to an ordinary dividend of 8.10 Norwegian kronor per share for 2017, along with new buybacks.

However, this news has failed to boost the shares much on Thursday, with it currently rising 0.6% to 174.4 Norwegian kronor after some analysts said the deal represented "bad value" for the company.

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