France Telecom has reportedly approached a series of financial institutions to arrange a 10 billion EUR loan that will enable it to acquire TeliaSonera. The French telecom giant, which is also known as the owner of the Orange mobile group, has been negotiating with the Nordic operator for quite some time now. However, it seems that the Swedish government, which owns 37% of TeliaSonera, is opposing the deal. National security reasons were cites as reasons, and at the moment they’re waiting for a report from the Swedish military.
According to the Financial Times, one solution to the security issues would be to spin-off TeliaSonera’s backbone network into a separate company. Still, it’s more likely Swedish government is using the security card to allow time for rival bids to be made.
As for the France Telecom’s financing deal, Financial Times suggests the loan could be a combination of loan and capital markets financing.