(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Nordic telecommunications operator TeliaSonera reported a 6.8% rise in its third-quarter net profit, boosted by higher sales and its minority-owned operations in Eurasia, but still warned for more savings initiatives to come.
The Stockholm-based company also announced plans to hand out an extraordinary dividend of around 10 billion kronor ($1.56 billion) to shareholders in 2007.
In the three-months ended September 30, net profit climbed to 5.4 billion kronor ($839 million), up from 5.05 billion kronor in the year-ago period.
Sales for the quarter reached 24.8 billion kronor ($3.85 billion), compared with 23.16 billion in the same three months in 2006.
In the second quarter, the company said it would speed up its strategy to focus on developing operations in its home markets and creating value at its operations in the East, including Turkey and Russia, as well as developing its investment in Spain.
The sharpened focus on strategy focus led the company to reshuffle in its management, by first firing former CEO Anders Igel and later naming Lars Nyberg as the new man for the job. Nyberg assumed the post on September 3.
The company now said its efficiency measures, in Sweden and Finland, implemented on April 1 and expected to last until the end of 2007, are forecast to create annual gross savings effect of around 1.5 billion kronor ($233 million)
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