Telenor Forecasts 5% Sales Growth After Loss From India Unit
February 08, 2012, 8:55 PM ESTBy Diana ben-Aaron
(Updates with share price in fifth paragraph.)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Telenor ASA, the Nordic region’s largest telephone company, forecast 5 percent revenue growth this year, excluding acquisitions and currency shifts, after writedowns at its Indian venture led to a fourth-quarter loss.
The net loss was 1.94 billion kroner ($336 million) compared with profit of 2.3 billion kroner a year earlier, Fornebu, Norway-based Telenor said today in a statement. That matched the average loss estimate of 15 analysts compiled by SME Direkt. Sales gained 2.3 percent to 25.4 billion kroner, compared with 25.2 billion kroner expected by analysts.
Operating profit in Denmark declined as customers shopped around for services. Telenor announced writedowns on Feb. 3 of 4.2 billion kroner on licenses and goodwill at its Indian venture after the country’s Supreme Court canceled mobile-phone licenses following an investigation. Telenor said today that demand elsewhere in Asia will help restore earnings.
“Growth momentum is driven by strong customer uptake in our Asian operations and increasing demand for data services,” Chief Executive Officer Jon Fredrik Baksaas said in the statement. “The results from the Norwegian operation are impacted by high market activities this quarter to speed up migration to new bundled-price plans.”
Telenor declined 0.5 krone or 0.5 percent to 93.3 kroner as of 9:03 a.m. in the Norwegian capital, its third day of losses.
The company is working to protect its Indian investment and “will consider every option” before spending more in the country, Baksaas said.
Telenor proposed a dividend of 5 kroner per share.
--Editors: Toby Alder, Tom Lavell
To contact the reporter on this story: Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at dbenaaron1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
