Billionaire Niel to Buy $1.3 billion Stake in Sweden’s Tele2

Valentine Baldassari and Benoit Berthelot, Bloomberg News

Xavier Niel Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- French billionaire Xavier Niel has agreed to take a stake in Swedish telecommunications company Tele2 AB for about 13 billion Swedish kronor ($1.3 billion).

Freya Investissement, an investment vehicle owned by Niel’s Iliad SA and NJJ Holding, will buy an approximately 19.8% stake from Nordic investor Kinnevik, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Niel has been expanding throughout Europe offering telecom services with low consumer prices and lean costs. He expanded France’s Iliad to Italy and Poland, and Niel is also looking to expand in Ukraine and Portugal, and has taken a minority stake in the UK’s Vodafone Group Plc.

Freya said it will purchase 20.7 million in A shares and 116.9 million in B shares from Kinnevik for a weighted average price of 94.2 kronor per share. The transaction will be split into three tranches, with the first closing shortly after signing. The second is expected to close in the second quarter, and the third tranche the in the following quarter at the latest, they said.

--With assistance from John Boudreau.

(Updates with additional details on the transaction and background on Niel throughout)