Abstract
Company Intelligence Reports are concise reports that provide a review of the
company's activities, corporate strategy and recent developments. These
reports are periodically updated throughout the year. Please refer to the
report index for the latest publication date.
Tele2 claims to be Europe's leading alternative telecommunications operator.
The company has approximately 31 million customers in 22 countries.
Tele2's business areas comprise: Mobile telephony; Fixed telephony and
Internet; Cable TV; and, Other Operations, including IT outsourcing, system
integration, Internet payment, cash card transactions and call phone services.
Tele2's market areas include: The Nordic market, comprising operations in
Sweden, Norway and Denmark; Baltic and Russia, comprising operations in
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Croatia; Central Europe, encompassing
operations in Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The
Czech Republic operations were divested in the second quarter of 2006;
Southern Europe, including operations in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and
Portugal; UK & Benelux, encompassing operations in the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Belgium, C3 and Alpha Telecom; and, Services, which
includes 3C, Datametrix, ProcureITright, Radio Components and UNI2.
In July 2005, Tele2 announced plans to acquire Versatel Telecom International
NV, an alternative telecom operator in the Netherlands and Belgium. In October
and November 2005, Tele2 announced that it had acquired a total of 80.29% of
the shares in Versatel Telecom. In March 2006, Tele2 Finance, Tele2
Netherlands Holdings and Versatel Telecom filed a merger proposal with the
Dutch commercial register. Under the proposal, Versatel would cease to exist
as a separate legal entity and Tele2 Finance would acquire all of Versatel's
assets and liabilities; Versatel shareholders would receive non-listed shares
in Tele2 Holdings in exchange for their shares in Versatel; and, the listing
of Versatel would terminate. Later in March, the Enterprise Chamber of the
Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled, in proceedings filed on behalf of certain
Versatel shareholders, that Versatel could not proceed with the merger with
Tele2 Finance in the manner proposed. The group of minority Versatel
shareholders had filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that the
interests of stakeholders in Versatel had not been safeguarded by the company
since Versatel was taken over by Tele2. In June 2006, Tele2 announced a
decision to put the preparations for the merger on hold.
Historically, Tele2 was originally known as NetCom Systems AB,and was formed
in 1993 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kinnevik, a Swedish industrial and
communications group. In November 1999, NetCom AB acquired a 17.8% stake in
Societe Europeene de Communication SA (SEC) and NetCom AB exchanged its 24.8%
stake in Norwegian cellular operator NetCom ASA for newly-issued shares in
SEC. In July 2000, NetCom AB tabled an offer for the total issued share
capital of SEC, valuing the company at SKr34,900 million. The offer was
accepted by SEC, and the merger was completed in October 2000. The merger
brought together all the Tele2-branded operations under one management, to
create a platform for the development and bundling of fixed-line, mobile,
fixed-wireless, data, Internet, and related services to both companies'
customers on a pan-European basis. The company was renamed Tele2 AB in
February 2001.
Tele2 has been listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange since 1996. As of
December 31, 2005, Tele2's largest shareholder was Kinnevik with 28.3% of the
company's share capital.
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