During a meeting today, TeliaSonera's board reconfirmed its commitment to the company's current strategy. The board takes full responsibility for existing and future investments. We will continue to be leading player in the Nordic and Baltic markets and will strengthen our operations in Central Asia.
Our presence in difficult markets such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan contributes to the long term development of democracy and human rights. We build and provide infrastructure that enables people to communicate with each other and the rest of the world.
"The areas of telecommunications and human rights bring conflicts of interest and difficult decisions. However, the board is convinced that the positive aspects of mobile communications by far outweigh the negative aspects. It would not help the people of these countries if TeliaSonera was to withdraw", said the chairman of the board Anders Narvinger.
"We have full confidence in CEO Lars Nyberg and his management team, as well as their implementation of the Group's strategy," he continued.
The board has decided to tighten its risk management processes for major investments, in order to ensure that the strategy can be implemented in a manner that is in line with the company's code of ethics and conduct as well as UN and OECD guidelines on corruption and human rights.
"A prerequisite for making any investments is that we can do it in a financially and ethically sustainable way. At the same time, the position we are currently in has revealed that we need to sharpen our guidelines and processes for making investments. Work to develop these new guidelines has already begun and they will come into full force on 1 January 2013, but they will also affect ongoing investment processes," said Mr Narvinger.
TeliaSonera's strategy means that the company does business in some of the world's most challenging markets when it comes to corruption and violations of human rights. The importance of a zero tolerance across the entire organization for corruption and human rights abuses can therefore not be underestimated. The board and management have recently announced significant new measures to sharpen focus on these issues.
During the rest of 2012 the board will work closely with former Ambassador Tomas Bertelman and devote its full energy to addressing the difficult tradeoffs involved in conducting business in Central Asia. The starting point for this work will be TeliaSonera's own Code of Ethics and Conduct and the guidelines drawn up by the UN and OECD. The board will also assist Mannheimer Swartling and its managing partner Biörn Riese in the legal review he is conducting.
TeliaSonera AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Securities Markets Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instrument Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 5 p.m CET on October 16, 2012.
For more information, please contact the TeliaSonera press office + 46-771 77 58 30, Newsroom (http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/)or follow us on Twitter @TLSN_Media (https://twitter.com/TLSN_Media).">press@teliasonera.com,visit our Newsroom (http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/)or follow us on Twitter @TLSN_Media (https://twitter.com/TLSN_Media).
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in the press release relating to future status or circumstances, including future performance and other trend projections are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements due to many factors, many of which are outside the control of TeliaSonera.
TeliaSonera provides network access and telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey, and in Spain. TeliaSonera helps people and companies communicate in an easy, efficient and environmentally friendly way. Our ambition is to be number one or two in all our markets, providing the best customer experience, high quality networks and cost efficient operations. TeliaSonera is also the leading European wholesale provider with a wholly-owned international carrier network. In 2011, net sales amounted to SEK 104 billion, EBITDA to SEK 36.9 billion and earnings per share to SEK 4.20. The TeliaSonera share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm and NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. Read more at www.teliasonera.com
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