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The deal, valued at 6.25 billion Danish crowns ($919.95 million), will allow Norlys to provide mobile connectivity to customers alongside its existing fixed broadband and electricity services
This week, Swedish multinational telecoms group Telia has announced its intention to sell its Danish unit to Norlys, Denmark’s largest integrated energy and telecommunications group.
The deal is valued at 6.25 billion Danish crowns ($919.95 million) and will see Norlys will directly inherit around 1.7 million mobile customers from Telia Denmark, as well as half of TT-Netvaerket, Telia Denmark’s infrastructure joint venture with Telenor.
Norlys currently has around 800,000 owner-members and has around 800,000 premises passed with fibre, as of 2022. It currently provides energy and broadband services to over a million households across Denmark.
With the acquisition of Telia Denmark, Norlys will now be able to provide mobile services as well as fibre broadband, thereby creating a converged operator with scale enough to take on the market leaders TDC and Telenor.
Norlys has had ambitions of becoming a converged telecoms operator for some time now, with the company having first expressed these ambitions back in the summer of 2020.
“Combining Telia’s mobile network with our fibre business will enable Norlys to provide a full-service solution in Denmark, paving the way for significant growth opportunities,” said Norlys CEO, Niels Duedahl.
The funds for the deal will presumably be provided, at least in part, by Norlys’ recent sale of 35% of its fibre business, Norlys Tele, to a consortium formed by Dutch pension fund PGGM and French energy group EDF’s investment arm, EDF Invest. The deal was first announced in March last year, though the financial details have been kept confidential.
For Telia, meanwhile, the sale will allow the operator to simplify its international portfolio, allowing it to “focus even more on markets where we can sustain or build a leading position,” according to company President and CEO Allison Kirkby.
As always, the deal is subject to the typical regulatory scrutiny from regulators, with the parties hoping to clos the deal in Q1 2024.
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