Posted by : trraju on Oct 30, 2003 - 12:43 PM General

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - TeliaSonera Corp., the Nordic region's biggest telecommunications provider, posted a strong gain in third-quarter profits and sales Wednesday, based in part on growth in mobile sales in Norway, Denmark and the Baltic states.
The telecom posted net income of 1.7 billion kronor (US$219 million), or 0.37 kronor (4 cents), compared with a loss of 12.2 billion kronor, or 2.62 kronor a share, in the year-ago period.

Net sales fell slightly to 20 billion kronor (US$2.6 billion) compared with 20.1 billion kronor last year. The drop was blamed on fluctuations in exchange rates.

``Compared with last year, we have posted a very strong earnings improvement,'' president and chief executive Anders Igel said.

Shares of TeliaSonera were down 3.2 percent to 35.80 kronor (US$4.61) in late morning trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

TeliaSonera sales of mobile communications equipment were strong in Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as markets in Russia and Asia, but fell in Finland. Activity in Sweden remained the same.

Based in Stockholm, TeliaSonera has 11.5 million wireless subscribers in the Nordics, Baltics and Eurasia, and operates more than 8 million land lines in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Lithuania.

The governments of Sweden and Finland own 64 percent of TeliaSonera, which also owns part of telecom operators in the Baltics, Russia, Turkey and central Asia.