Euronews: Yoigo Sale a No-Go for TeliaSonera

TeliaSonera AB, Tele2 AB, France Télécom – Orange and Vodafone Group plc get caught up in today's trawl of the EMEA headlines.

Sweden's TeliaSonera has given up on its attempt to sell Yoigo, its Spanish unit, after failing to attract a bid that matched its expectations. Last summer TeliaSonera announced it was looking to offload its 76.6 percent stake in Yoigo for about €1 billion (US$1.22 billion). The Spanish outfit is the country's fourth-largest mobile operator, claiming 3.7 million customers at the most recent count. (See TeliaSonera Gives Up on Yoigo Sale and Euronews: For Sale – Spanish Mobile Operator.)

In a similar vein, Nordic operator Tele2 has insisted it will go ahead and sell its Russian unit to VTB for $3.5 billion, a Russian bank, reports Reuters, despite interest from VimpelCom Ltd., Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) and A1.

France Télécom – Orange is to outsource more than 2,000 of its African towers to IHS, a mobile infrastructure specialist, in a 15-year deal. Under the terms of the agreement, available space on these towers will be marketed to other mobile operators while Orange subsidiaries will gain access to slots on towers that IHS currently owns in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Cameroon. (See France Telecom Outsources African Towers.)

U.K.-based Vodafone is officially cheesed off with the Indian government for the fact that it is being forced to re-bid for mobile licenses in India's three largest cities, reports the Financial Times (subscription required). The mobile giant wrote a "forceful" letter to the telecom regulator accusing it of "factual mistakes" and "unfair treatment." — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading