April 17 (Bloomberg) -- France Telecom SA fell as much as 4.4 percent in Paris trading after Chief Financial Officer Gervais Pellissier told the Financial Times the company is examining TeliaSonera AB and Telenor ASA.

France Telecom shares fell as much as 91 cents to 19.95 euros and traded at 20.50 euros as of 9:38 a.m. The stock declined 6 percent yesterday after Le Figaro reported that France Telecom was studying a possible takeover offer of TeliaSonera, Sweden's largest phone company.

Buying either TeliaSonera, with a market value of 224.1 billion kronor ($38 billion), or Telenor, trading at 174.7 billion kroner ($35 billion), would be France Telecom's biggest deal since its 2000 purchase of Orange Plc for 27.8 billion pounds ($54.5 billion).

The ``key downside risk in our view and price target is France Telecom overpaying for control of assets,'' analysts at Goldman Sachs including James Sawtell said in a research note published yesterday.

Pellissier told the Financial Times in an interview that France Telecom, Europe's third-largest phone company, was examining a number of companies including TeliaSonera. He also said the company is exploring other options, including Telenor.

Telenor rose as much as 5.5 kroner, or 5.5 percent, to 105.5 kroner, and traded at 104.25 kroner as of 9:38 a.m. in Oslo. Before today, the stock had lost 23 percent this year. TeliaSonera, which jumped 12 percent yesterday, fell as much as 1.4 kronor, or 2.8 percent, to 48.6 kronor in Stockholm.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 17, 2008 03:41 EDT