France Telecom getting serious about TeliaSonera; Wants to raise 10 billion EUR for the acquisition

France Telecom has reportedly approached a series of financial institutions to arrange a 10 billion EUR loan that will enable it to acquire TeliaSonera. The French telecom giant, which is also known as the owner of the Orange mobile group, has been negotiating with the Nordic operator for quite some time now. However, it seems that the Swedish government, which owns 37% of TeliaSonera, is opposing the deal. National security reasons were cites as reasons, and at the moment they’re waiting for a report from the Swedish military.

According to the Financial Times, one solution to the security issues would be to spin-off TeliaSonera’s backbone network into a separate company. Still, it’s more likely Swedish government is using the security card to allow time for rival bids to be made.

As for the France Telecom’s financing deal, Financial Times suggests the loan could be a combination of loan and capital markets financing.

Related posts

• Nortel bets on LTE as prediction rises to 32 million by 2013 (0)
• LTE Roll out updates from the 4th LTE World Summit in London (0)
• Using cellphones as credit cards? (0)
• Total Telecom – Arcep insists Orange, SFR must meet 3G obligations (0)
• TeliaSonera gears up to ship first dual-mode LTE / 3G USB WWAN … (0)