Danish telecoms provider TDC has reportedly hinted that it would consider takeover offers as the Nordic telecommunications industry heads into a wave of tie-ups, Bloomberg reports. Pernille Erenbjerg, CFO of Denmark’s leading operator, said that mid-sized companies, including TDC, could find themselves as likely acquisition targets for bigger regional players such as Telenor and TeliaSonera. The executive was cited as saying: ‘Consolidation is a big theme in Europe for our industry. Looking at a five-year horizon, I would say that consolidation will also take place in the Nordic region, leaving fewer players… We are not actively up for sale, although as a listed company, you’re theoretically always up for sale. But we would obviously listen if there were an approach.’
Last week TDC reported a 5.5% year-on-year drop in revenue to DKK5.668 billion (USD1.02 billion) in the three months to end-June 2014, down from DKK5.999 billion in 2Q13; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 3.2% from DKK2.431billion in 2Q13 to DKK2.354 billion in the second quarter of 2014, while gross profit declined by 4.3% to DKK4.204 billion. Further, TDC’s consumer mobile unit lost 39,000 customers during the period under review, a situation that CEO Carsten Dilling described as ‘far from satisfactory’.