Telia Company Sells Remaining Stake in MegaFon for $1.04 Billion

     By Dominic Chopping 
 

STOCKHOLM--Scandinavian telecom operator Telia Company AB (TELIA.SK) said Tuesday it has agreed to sell its remaining 19% stake in Russia-based MegaFon (MFON.MZ), raising gross proceeds of 60.4 billion rubles ($1.04 billion).

The sale, to Russia's Gazprombank (GZPR.RS), follows a similar move last month when Telia sold its remaining direct stake in Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (TKC) as it positions itself to focus on core Nordic and Baltic regions.

Gazprombank has been placed under sectorial sanctions by the European Union and the U.S. which prohibits U.S. and E.U. companies from financing entities that are subject to the sanctions. However, this deal has been financed with cash in immediately available funds and there is no funding or credit commitments from Telia Company or any other party.

"This transaction does not involve any financing of Gazprombank or any trade in stock or other securities issued by Gazprombank and the sanctions are therefore not applicable," Telia said in a statement.

BofA Merrill Lynch, CitiGroup and Morgan Stanley have assisted Telia Company in this transaction with CitiGroup being the leading bank. White & Case and Houthoff have assisted as legal advisors.

-Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]; Twitter: @domchopping @WSJNordics

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 31, 2017 03:55 ET (07:55 GMT)

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