** Citi Research sees limited upside for Nordic telcos, citing financial trends and lack of catalysts
** It downgrades Swedish operators Telia OMXSTO:TELIA and Tele2 OMXSTO:TEL2_A as well as Norway's Telenor OSL:TEL to ''neutral'', also maintaining a neutral stance on Finland's Elisa OMXHEX:ELISA
** While the brokerage deems the groups' underlying topline and EBITDA growth as 'decent' across the board in Q1, it notes it was driven by 2025 cost cutting, and expects a moderation in the EBITDA trend in Q2
** Given no in-market consolidation and tougher-than-expected competition in Finland, the stock performance YTD was "less impressive," the brokerage says
** It adds that while there is some in-market consolidation optimism in Sweden and Denmark, operators seem to wait for more supportive signals from the regulators
** Also, operators may reserve headroom for future M&A, capping shareholder return, Citi notes