Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Advanced Television: Telenor acquires GlobalConnect’s consumer business in Norway

Story from Advanced Television:

Telenor has announced the acquisition of GlobalConnect’s consumer business in Norway in a transaction valued at NOK 6 billion (€0.51bn).

“This marks a strategic step forward – for our customers and for Telenor. By integrating the consumer part of GlobalConnect’s fibre network into our own, we will extend our reliable and high-performing services to even more households across the country,” commented Benedicte Schilbred Fasmer, President & CEO of Telenor.

The acquisition, which includes the fibre infrastructure and approximately 140,000 fibre customers, represents a key building block in Telenor’s long-term strategy to strengthen its fibre footprint in Norway. The transaction seeks to create synergies with existing operations and build long-term, robust scale across the core telecom market.

Customers joining Telenor will gain access to a range of services – from advanced digital security and premium home networks to diverse entertainment offerings – all supported by Telenor’s connectivity and customer service. Telenor added that it is committed to continued investments in fraud prevention, secure WiFi, and digital protection – delivering on our promise to be all of Norway’s safety net.

“We warmly welcome our new customers and employees. This acquisition enables us to reach even more households with the services people rely on every day — and to keep raising the bar for what customers can expect from their connectivity provider,” continued Fasmer.

“GlobalConnect’s B2C business in Norway is powered by a highly skilled and dedicated team, having successfully proven consistent growth over many years. As GlobalConnect is focusing our B2C business in the Nordics into a pure wholesale-provider, it has been a natural next step to divest B2C Norway. We are confident that Telenor will take good care of our B2C customers and employees going forward. B2B and Carrier customers in Norway remain a strategic focus and we will continue our investments in these areas,” added Martin Lippert, CEO of GlobalConnect.

The Norwegian fibre market is highly fragmented, and Telenor believes scale is needed to provide the sufficient level of robustness, operationally and financially. Telenor’s market share of fibre subscriptions will increase from 22 per cent to 29 per cent as a consequence of the transaction, based on 2024 NKOM data.

GlobalConnect’s consumer portfolio generated revenues of more than NOK 0.6 billion in 2024. Telenor expects EBITDA of around NOK 0.3 billion in each of the two first years of operations after integration and restructuring costs, and free cash flow (FCF) from the deal to gradually ramp up to a run-rate of NOK 0.45 billion before financing costs from 2028.

Telenor estimates annual post-integration cost savings of approximately NOK 0.15 billion, driven by backbone integration and scale efficiencies within sales, operations and maintenance.

The transaction is subject to approval by the Norwegian Competition Authority.

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