Nordic operator TeliaSonera has seen its government ownership reduced to less than 50 percent after the Finnish state fund Solidium reduced its stake from 13.7 percent to 11.7 percent by selling 89 million shares for a total of EUR451 million. The government-held stake, which also includes a 37.4 percent holding by the Swedish state, is now 49.1 percent compared to 51.1 percent previously. Solidium also placed EUR600 million in bonds which, if exchanged, would reduce its stake in TeliaSonera further to 9.5 percent. TeliaSonera was formed in 2002 when the Swedish state-owned Telia joined forces with Finnish-state owned Sonera.