STOCKHOLM, Jan 20 Reuters Swedish telecom operator Telia Company warned on Friday its fourthquarter results would be hit by noncash impairment charges due mainly to increased cost of capital.

The Swedish group, which is due to publish its full quarterly earnings report on Jan. 26, said in a statement impairments across its operations would total 19.8 billion crowns 1.93 billion.

It said the bulk of costs related to goodwill writedowns at its Finland and Norway units, with charges of 9.5 billion crowns and 8.5 billion, respectively, reflecting slowing economies and higher market rates.

The remaining charges relate to its Danish and Latvian units, the C More pay TV business, and a move to dismantle Telia39;s copper network in Sweden.

Shares in Telia, which is in the midst of a yearslong cost cutting programme, were down 1.4 in midday trade.

Analysts before the news of the charge had on average expected Telia to report a fourthquarter pretax profit of 1.7 billion crowns, according to Refinitiv SmartEstimate.

1 10.2836 Swedish crowns

Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Supantha Mukherjee Editing by Tomasz Janowski

Source Reuters