Telenor chairman quits over TV2 deal

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian conglomerate Orkla expects to raise up to $350 million from floating off its specialist chemicals arm Borregaard and also hopes to cut debt by $175 million, it said on Monday. Orkla aims to sell 81 million shares or 81 percent of the firm to raise between 1.6 billion and 2 billion crowns ($280-349 million) and also expects Borregaard to repay 1 billion crowns of debt once it completes the listing. The shares are expected to be offered for sale at a price between 20 and 25 crowns per share, which would value Borregaard at between 2 and 2.5 billion crowns. ...

It is a well-known fact that nobody in Congress ever reads, or even skims, any law, and especially not the fine print, it passes until long after it has been enacted into law. It appears the same is just as true for the biggest pillar of support for the Obama administration: America's labor unions, whose liberal vote every election is instrumental to preserving the outflow side of America's welfare state.

OSLO/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vimpelcom's $6.6 billion bid for telecoms assets owned by Weather Investments was hanging by a thread after Norwegian shareholder Telenor said on Monday it would not back...

It appears that the US-Korea FTA has spawned a rather public disagreement among US labor unions - one that, upon closer review, proves that organized labor's altruistic complaints about US trade agreements hide their real motivation: good ol' fashioned protectionism.  AEI's Claude Barfield provides a nice summary of the union spat here:

Telenor ASA (TELNY.PK)) Q4 2011 Earnings Call February 8, 2012 12:00 pm ET Executives Scott Engebrigtsen - Communication Manager Jon Fredrik Baksaas - President & CEO Richard Olav - EVP & CFO Analysts Espen Torgersen - Carnegie Arild Nysæther - Fondsfinans Harald Øyen - Swedbank First Securities Andy Parnis - UBS Andrew Lee - Goldman Sachs

Power Hedge submits: TeliaSonera AB (TLSNF.PK) recently announced (.pdf) that it has entered into a joint agreement with Norway’s Telenor ASA (TELNF.PK) to build up a world-class wireless network in Denmark.

In their latest blog series, U. Chicago's Gary Becker and Richard Posner explain the effect of American labor unions on the US economy, and boy is it ugly.  Be sure to read the both entries in full - they're well worth your time.  But here are a few of my favorite excerpts.  First up is Becker:

Norwegian energy group Statoil said Friday it had sold 40 percent of the Peregrino oil field off Brazil to Chinese company Sinochem for nearly 3.1 billion dollars (2.45 billion euros)."For us, this is a way to free up value for our shareholders and at the same time optimise our portfolio and share the risks" linked to developing the field, Statoil spokesman Jannik Lindbaek told AFP.Following the sale, Statoil said it would still own a 60 percent stake and will remain the operator of the field, located in the Campos Basin.