Telenor CEO: Revenue Growth Main Strategic Priority

STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Norwegian telecom operator Telenor's main strategic priority is keeping a strong revenue growth profile going forward, Chief Executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas said at the company's capital markets day Friday.

Telenor has been growing revenue at a faster pace than most other incumbent European telecom operators over recent years thanks to its relatively large focus on emerging markets and several acquisitions.

In 2006, Telenor grew total revenue by almost 37% to 91.1 billion Norwegian kroner ($15.2 billion) from NOK66.6 billion.

Due to a dispute over accounting at its Ukrainian operations, Telenor is for the time being not consolidating its revenue from the country. However, with revenue adjusted to discount Ukrainian operations, Telenor expects sales to grow 15%-20% in 2007.

In the longer term, Telenor wouldn't specify its expectations.

"We're very eager to maintain that (revenue growth) as long as we can," Baksaas said.

The company's Chief Financial Officer Trond Westlie said revenue growth could come from adding more customers in existing operations, as well as acquisition of new operations, and expansion of existing businesses into related areas.

Westlie said growth in the long term will depend on which opportunities for acquisitions appear and how successful Telenor is in carrying through its plans in the other two areas.

-By Magnus Hansson, Dow Jones Newswires; +46 8 545 130 91; magnus.hansson@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 25th May 2007