Lars Nyberg, president and CEO of TeliaSonera, said that the company is “keeping our eyes and ears open” with regard to potential acquisition opportunities, with the caveat that “there aren’t that many around – let’s be honest.”

In an exclusive interview with Mobile World Live, the executive noted the company will continue with its practice of increasing its holding in existing affiliates where appropriate. Driving this is the fact that it often finds itself in a position where the effort required is not in line with the rewards: “we typically have 50 percent, 60 percent ownership, but we have 100 percent of the work,” Nyberg said.

As an example of this, earlier this year, TeliaSonera increased its ownership of Kazakhstan operator Kcell, boosting its effective ownership to 61.9 percent.

Recent reports suggested that the operator may be a possible buyer of Hi3G Access Denmark, which trades using the 3 brand. However, it was also mooted that price may be a sticking point, with current owners Hutchison Whampoa and Investor AB looking to recoup their previous investment in the business – out of line with its likely valuation.

According to figures from Wireless Intelligence, Telia is the third biggest mobile operator in Denmark and 3 the fourth, with both lagging TDC and Telenor.

The full interview can be seen here.