Victory for Telenor in Sonofon tax case

In its decision of 21 December 2005 the Appeal Court (Borgarting Lagmannsrett) ruled in favour of Telenor in respect of Telenor's intragroup sale of its shares in Sonofon Holding A/S. This sale triggered a tax loss of approx. NOK 8.6 billion, with corresponding reduced tax charges of approximately NOK 2.4 billion for the fiscal year 2001. Thus, the Appeal Court upheld the decision by Oslo District Court (Oslo Tingrett) from June 2004. Telenor does not know whether the tax authorities will appeal this decision. An appeal must be filed within one month.