TeliaSonera announces 16% Q1 profits drop

Nordic telecoms giant TeliaSonera announced a 16 percent drop in first-quarter net profits, but said its outlook for 2012 remained unchanged. From January to March, the group recorded net profits of 3.9 billion kronor (441 million euros, $578 million) compared with 4.64 billion kronor for the same period in 2011. That was substantially worse than analysts' forecasts, as compiled by Dow Jones Newswires, of profits of 4.14 billion euros. Over the first three months of this year, net sales rose by 3.5 percent to 25.69 billion kronor, in line with analysts' forecasts of 25.51 billion kronor. The company said it expected net sales in local currencies -- and excluding acquisitions -- of between one and two percent, though currency fluctuations might have an impact on the figures as reported in Swedish currency. "We reiterate the outlook for 2012 and believe that our continued work to develop our price models and scrutinize costs throughout the organization will leave our EBITDA margin at the same level as last year," Lars Nyberg, president and chief executive said. He recalled too that the company had confirmed that it was in talks with Moscow-based Altimo and AF Telecom to buy the Russian mobile phone company Megafon, Russia's second-largest mobile phone operator.