TeliaSonera to exit from Eurasia region

At the time, new CEO Kaan Terzioglu said the Ukraine would serve as a test bed as Turkcell moves to strengthen its worldwide operations.

TeliaSonera will increase focus on its Regions Europe and Sweden within the strategy of creating the new TeliaSonera.

TeliaSonera announced it would leave Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Tajikistan in a news statement issued on September 17.

“We realize that this will be a complex task that will take time”. TeliaSonera will maintain its presence in Russian Federation and the Baltic states. No individual or company has been charged as part of the probes.

“TeliaSonera has begun phasing out its activities in the region, and now it is hard to speculate on the subject as long as there are no potential buyers”, she said, commenting on the sale of TeliaSonera’s shares of the Azerbaijani mobile operator.

In the meantime, it added, the company will “continue to operate and develop the Eurasian operations in a sustainable and responsible way”.

“We can all guess and speculate who the owners are, but we want facts and answers, and that we haven’t received”, Mr. Dennelind said on Thursday.

On top of that, Dennelind said TeliaSonera is facing “an ongoing preliminary investigation from several prosecutors in Uzbekistan”. The ensuing scandal led the company to reshuffle its top management, including its chief executive and chief financial officer.

“We need to refocus the company into the regions Europe and Sweden”, CEO Johan Dennelind explained to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service.

Pulling out of Azerbaijan could be complicated because TeliaSonera has been locked in a prolonged dispute with partners in Turkcell, one of the holding companies through which it controls its Azeri business.

TeliaSonera holds a 58.55% stake in Fintur, with Turkcell owning the remaining 41.45%. “It is very positive that TeliaSonera’s focused work to improve sustainability has enabled the next step in the reshaping of TeliaSonera”.