Swedish telco TeliaSonera has promoted acting chief financial officer Christian Luiga to senior vice president and CFO. Luiga had been acting CFO since November, replacing Per-Arne Blomquist who was fired as part of the operator’s review into deals…
Swedish telco TeliaSonera has promoted acting chief financial officer Christian Luiga to senior vice president and CFO.
Luiga had been acting CFO since November, replacing Per-Arne Blomquist who was fired as part of the operator’s review into deals made in Eurasia following controversy in Uzbekistan. He was previously head of the group’s CEO office.
TeliaSonera CEO Johan Dennelind said: “Christian is very familiar with our operations and well equipped to be part of shaping TeliaSonera into the future.”
Dennelind was appointed to his role in June and is also a product of sweeping changes made to the telco’s board after an internal investigation criticised its lack of due diligence over a 3G licence deal in Uzbekistan.
Swedish law firm Mannheimer Swartling said TeliaSonera should have carried out more in-depth analysis into the 2007 deal, although it found nothing to support allegations that it committed bribery or participated in money laundering.
The operator has meanwhile appointed Norton Rose Fulbright to review partners and the deals that it has made across Eurasia in the past few years.
It emerged last month that the US Department of Justice and US Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating TeliaSonera’s options in Uzbekistan, in addition to probes being carried out by Dutch and Swedish authorities.
Speaking at its latest AGM in early April, TeliaSonera chairwoman Marie Ehrling was cited saying “several transactions and practices” had not been carried out in accordance with good business practice. She reportedly added that it could not be excluded that certain actions found in its review on Kazakhstan, Nepal, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Georgia, have been criminal.
