France Telecom withdraws Telia purchase proposal

France Telecom (FT) has withdrawn an indicative offer to take over Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera. The ‘friendly’ USD42 billion cash and share offer was put on the table by the French group on 5 June, but TeliaSonera and its largest shareholder the Swedish government immediately rejected it as substantially too low. Following subsequent talks between the two parties, the Stockholm-based telco maintained its view that the proposal undervalued the company, as FT did not significantly improve the terms and conditions. FT has now withdrawn its offer, saying that it has ‘decided not to submit a firm offer to TeliaSonera’s shareholders…Notwithstanding the interest shown in the project, the dialogue opened with the board of directors of TeliaSonera was unable to reach agreement on its financial conditions.’