Telia chief Johan Dennelind (pictured) played down reports the company may be lining up a move on TDC, while also updating on its own plans to sell non-core businesses.

It had been reported Telia was looking to bolster its Danish presence with a deal to buy incumbent TDC, fitting its focus on Nordic and Baltic markets. However, the CEO today said: “as of now we don’t see risk and valuation as attractive for a larger acquisition in Denmark and we will continue to review our strategic options”.

According to Reuters, which cited “sources familiar with the matter”, Telia believes such a deal would face “a host of legal, financial and political obstacles”.

Dennelind also said it is “highly probable” the sale of its Eurasian assets – a previously disclosed strategy – will take place in 2017.

Following the decision to explore a joint sale of its Fintur Holdings business alongside co-shareholder Turkcell, the company experienced “an increased interest in our assets”. However, Dennelind cautioned the sale of Ucell, its Uzbek business, “is the most difficult to predict”.

With regard to its ongoing business, Dennelind acknowledged Telia sees “a continuously tough market for our legacy services in fixed, which do put pressure our profitability”. This was mitigated by efficiency measures and revenue growth in new services, and in future it will focus on growth in core and new services.

The company reported a net income of SEK7.3 billion ($829.8 million) in Q4 2016, compared with a prior-year Q4 loss of SEK3 billion, bolstered by gains on the sale of its Yoigo business in Spain. The prior-year period also included impairment charges relating to Uzbekistan and Denmark.

Revenue of SEK21.1 billion in the recent quarter was down 6.7 per cent year-on-year, affected negatively by disposals, and positively by foreign exchange gains. Telia said net sales in local currencies, excluding acquisitions and disposals, increased 0.2 per cent.

In Sweden, service revenue growth of 0.5 per cent to SEK8.4 billion came as consumer segment gains in both fixed and mobile compensated for lower sales in the enterprise business.

For its other European region, service revenue declined 11.7 per cent year-on-year to SEK7.6 billion following the sale of Yoigo. Mobile service revenue in local currencies, excluding acquisitions and disposals, grew 3.2 per cent due to “positive development in five of six markets”.