Norway to sell $1bn stake in Telenor

Norway said today it would offer up to 13

Norway said today it would offer up to 13.9 per cent of state-controlled telecom operator Telenor to investors in a sale expected to yield over $1 billion.

It is only the second slice of Telenor to be offered to the market since the firm was listed in December 2000. A fully subscribed sale would cut the state's stake to 63.7 per cent.

Oil-rich Norway hardly needs the cash, but the government said the sale to foreign and domestic institutions served its goal of reducing its industrial holdings. Having more Telenor stock freely traded would add value for shareholders, it said.

Telenor did not take part in the major restructuring of the Nordic telecom sector that led to the creation in 2002 of Swedish-Finnish firm TeliaSonera, the region's biggest telecom service provider.

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But it has expanded abroad in mobile communications, including Denmark, Russia and parts of Southeast Asia.

The centre-right coalition government said in a policy paper last year that private owners would be better owners than the state and that state ownership should be curbed.