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NORWAY

Swedish TeliaSonera buys Norwegian Tele2

Swedish telecom firm TeliaSonera announced on Monday the company would purchase operator Tele2's Norwegian division for 5.1 billion kronor.

Published: 7 July 2014 09:30 CEST
Swedish TeliaSonera buys Norwegian Tele2
Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

Swedish telecom company Tele2 is selling its Norwegian operations to competitor TeliaSonera, for a total worth of 5.1 billion kronor ($743.92 million).

The sale was levered and free from debts, and will lead to capital gains of 2 billion kronor ($291.7 million) for Tele2.

"The transaction consolidate two prosperous operators on the Norwegian market," Arild Hustad, CEO of Tele2 Norway, said in a statement. "The combination of the two will create a firm with even greater potential to take care of our mobile customers and companies."

Tele2 has over 1.2 million Norwegian customers, bringing TeliaSonera's Norwegian branch, Netcom, to 2.7 million mobile customers in total.

"An immediate advantage of combining the two companies is an accelerated foldout of a national 4G network, which will create conditions for growth on the Norwegian market," Hustad added. The network aims to have 98 percent of Norwegian households on the 4G network by 2016. 

The transaction should be completed in early 2015.

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NORWAY

Norway to send 200,000 AstraZeneca doses to Sweden and Iceland

Norway, which has suspended the use of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine until further notice, will send 216,000 doses to Sweden and Iceland at their request, the Norwegian health ministry said Thursday.

Published: 22 April 2021 14:29 CEST
Norway to send 200,000 AstraZeneca doses to Sweden and Iceland
Empty vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

“I’m happy that the vaccines we have in stock can be put to use even if the AstraZeneca vaccine has been paused in Norway,” Health Minister Bent Høie said in a statement.

The 216,000 doses, which are currently stored in Norwegian fridges, have to be used before their expiry dates in June and July.

Sweden will receive 200,000 shots and Iceland 16,000 under the expectation they will return the favour at some point. 

“If we do resume the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, we will get the doses back as soon as we ask,” Høie said.

Like neighbouring Denmark, Norway suspended the use of the AstraZeneca jab on March 11 in order to examine rare but potentially severe side effects, including blood clots.

Among the 134,000 AstraZeneca shots administered in Norway before the suspension, five cases of severe thrombosis, including three fatal ones, had been registered among relatively young people in otherwise good health. One other person died of a brain haemorrhage.

On April 15, Norway’s government ignored a recommendation from the Institute of Public Health to drop the AstraZeneca jab for good, saying it wanted more time to decide.

READ MORE: Norway delays final decision on withdrawal of AstraZeneca vaccine 

The government has therefore set up a committee of Norwegian and international experts tasked with studying all of the risks linked to the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which is also suspected of causing blood clots.

Both are both based on adenovirus vector technology. Denmark is the only European country to have dropped the AstraZeneca
vaccine from its vaccination campaign, and said on Tuesday it would “lend” 55,000 doses to the neighbouring German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

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