8% TeliaSonera stake sold

The Swedish government yesterday announced the completion of its sale of an 8% stake in telecoms group TeliaSonera for SEK18 billion (USD2.68 billion) to institutional investors, via an accelerated book-building share offer launched the day before. The state sold a total of 359.2 million shares in TeliaSonera at SEK50 a share, lowering its stake in the Stockholm-based telco to 37.3% from 45.3%. Sweden’s financial markets minister Mats Odell, who is responsible for selling SEK200 billion worth of state-owned stakes by 2010, said the sale was an important milestone in cutting government ownership. Deutsche Bank and UBS acted as bookrunners and Carnegie was an agent for the share sale.