TeliaSonera earnings hit by strong krona

Swedish-Finnish telecoms firm TeliaSonera's reported earnings on Wednesday below analyst expectations on the back of a strong Swedish currency and problems in its Turkish operations.

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The Swedish-Finnish firm nevertheless maintained its outlook for the year.

For the April to June period, TeliaSonera's net profit was 3.38 billion kronor ($524 million) against 4.26 billion kronor expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Sales fell 4.0 percent, to 25.89 billion kronor, the company said in its earnings report.

The company was penalised by the strong Swedish krona, with sales going up with the exchange rate effects excluded.

TeliaSonera's earnings were also dragged down by the poor performance of its Turkish branch Turkcell, whose profits fell 99 percent.

The company however said it was maintaining its forecast of a 3.0 percent
raise of its sales, excluding exchange rate effects, noting this could be affected by the krona's fluctuation.

TeliaSonera has about 159.4 million direct and indirect clients at the en of June, and is a globe leader thanks to its stakes in Turkcell and Russia's Megafon.

Similarly to its Nordic competitors Telenor of Norway and Sweden's Tele2, it has centered its development strategy on the Baltic countries, Russia, Turkey and the former Soviet republics.