Teliasonera Acquires 100 Pct Of Lithuanian Mobile Company Omnitel

VILNIUS, Aug 17 (AFP) - The Swedish-Finnish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera said on Tuesday it had bought the remaining 10 percent stake in Lithuania's major mobile company Omnitel that it did not already own for 63.5 million dollars (51.4 million euros).
"TeliaSonera became the sole owner of Omnitel," it said in a statement.
TeliaSonera bought a 35 percent stake in Omnitel from Motorola in August 2003, increasing its share in the Lithuanian company to 90 percent.
Established in 1991 by the Kazickas family, Omnitel is a major mobile operator in Lithuania.
With some 1.14 million subscribers on July 1, Omnitel holds about 47 percent of the Lithuanian mobile market.
Omnitel posted first-half sales of 394 million litas (114.1 million euros, 140.9 million dollars), up 6.2 percent from a year ago.
It expects full-year sales of 800 million litas in 2004.