Telenor has confirmed reports that it's in talks to sell its mobile operations in Central and Eastern Europe. The Norwegian operator said in a statement that it has received "inbound and unsolicited interest" for the assets, which include mobile operators in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia.
Telenor said it's started a process to evaluate the interest received and expects to conduct the assessment in the first quarter of 2018.
Telenor said its CEE companies have strong market positions and solid financial results, and contributed in 2017 around 9 percent of its revenues and 8 percent of its EBITDA. A sale would see the company's presence in Europe reduced to the Nordic markets, after it earlier sold down its stake in Russia and CIS operator Veon. Telenor also sold its Indian activities last year, but continues to expand in other Asian markets, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar.
According to earlier media reports, the potential buyer of Telenor's CEE activities is a US investment fund, which could be willing to pay USD 2 billion. The four mobile operations have in total around 10 million subscribers and over EUR 1 billion in annual revenues.
