TeliaSonera January-March 2010

TeliaSonera January-March 2010

Returning to organic revenue growth

• Net sales decreased 3.9 percent to SEK 26,090 million (27,135). Net sales in
local currencies and excluding acquisitions increased 2.5 percent.
• The addressable cost base in local currencies and excluding acquisitions
decreased 2.9 percent.
• EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, increased 1.6 percent to SEK 8,963
million (8,821) and the margin to 34.4 percent (32.5). The increase in local
currencies and excluding acquisitions was 8.8 percent.
• Operating income, excluding non-recurring items, was SEK 7,462 million (7,477)
as higher EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, was offset by lower
contribution from associated companies.
• Net income attributable to owners of the parent company increased 6.4 percent
to SEK 4,722 million (4,440) and earnings per share to SEK 1.05 (0.99).
• Free cash flow was SEK 3,372 million (3,259).
• During the quarter the number of subscriptions grew by 2.3 million, of which
1.0 million new subscriptions in the consolidated operations and 1.3 million in
the 
associated companies, totaling 149.9 million.
• Group outlook for 2010 remains unchanged from Year-end Report 2009.


(Table included in attached pdf)


Comments by Lars Nyberg, President and CEO

“In the first quarter we managed to grow revenues in local currencies again. It
is encourag-ing that growth can be seen across several of our markets. Eurasia
continues to be our growth engine, with a revenue growth of more than twelve
percent in local currencies. This was twice as high as in the fourth quarter
last year and was achieved with maintained high profitability.

During the quarter we rebranded our operations in Nepal to Ncell and in
Tajikistan to Tcell. This marks the companies' further integration into the
TeliaSonera group and their entrance into a new phase of dynamic development,
where new segments of the market will be tar-geted, which will further
strengthen their leading positions.

Growth and profitability in Sweden continue to be robust, and is driven by
Mobility Services. We see above industry revenue growth in this market and it is
encouraging that growth in both the consumer and business segment is healthy.
For the first time in several quarters, Finland and Denmark reported positive
revenue growth in local currencies, as a result of strong growth in data usage
and higher equipment sales.

TeliaSonera was the first operator in the world to launch commercial 4G services
in 2009. The extensive 4G network roll-out will continue throughout 2010 to 25
cities in Sweden and 4 cities in Norway. We have also been awarded a 4G license
in Finland and plan to bid for forthcoming licenses in Denmark and the Baltic
countries. 

We believe that now is the time to selectively increase our investments in
bandwidth, both in our fixed and mobile networks. However, we made the decision
in the first quarter to invest cautiously as we first wanted to get confirmation
of growth, especially in Eurasia. Some of our planned investments have also been
delayed due to factors such as weather conditions in the Nordic region and
negotiations with suppliers. Therefore, the investment level in 2010 may end up
lower than we planned at the beginning of this year.

We are still targeting an unchanged cost base this year, as some of the previous
savings will be re-invested to support growth. The growth that we saw in the
first quarter makes me more confident than a couple of months ago that we will
reach our forecast of somewhat higher net sales in local currencies than last
year.”


Questions regarding the reports:
TeliaSonera AB
Investor Relations
SE-106 63 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 8 504 550 00
Fax +46 8 611 46 42
www.teliasonera.com