TDC says it is ready to consider an offer, as the Nordic telecommunications industry heads into a wave of tie-ups that will absorb a number of mid-sized companies, Bloomberg reported. Pernille Erenbjerg, TDC's chief financial officer, told the news agency that it is not actively up for sale, but as a listed company, one is theoretically always for sale. TDC we would obviously listen if there were an approach, she said.
Erenbjerg told Bloomberg that consolidation is a major theme in Europe for the industry and that looking at a five-year horizon, she would say that consolidation will take place in the Nordic region, too, leaving fewer players.
The Scandinavian market is dominated by Norway's Telenor, followed by Sweden's TeliaSonera, with TDC ranking in the next group together with Tele2 and 3 Scandinavia, said Bloomberg.
Erenbjerg said she did not foresee the biggest companies like Telia and Telenor disappearing over five years, but others might. She said TDC’s role is different from that of the two bigger players. TDC has a size that makes it possible for large players to consider it, she added.
TeliaSonera has already agreed to buy Tele2’s Norwegian business and TDC agreed in April to sell its Finnish unit for EUR 154 million to DNA. TDC is not planning any more divestments, said Erenbjerg, because the rest of what it has is what it considers core. She said the company might make smaller acquisitions, in the amount of about DKK 100 million each, but would only do so if it found something that it really wanted in its target nations of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
On 07 August, TDC said its gross profit would suffer by as much as DKK 150 million from tougher regulation this year, and that the effect would be as much as DKK 175 million in 2015 and DKK 250 million the year after.
