Reuters: Regulatory News: Telenor says will not sell Vimpelcom shares, Alfa controls more

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Telenor says will not sell Vimpelcom shares, Alfa controls more Aug 20th 2012, 09:56 Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:56am EDT * Says Vimpelcom's Russian co-investor Alfa controls more * Claims 6 pct shareholder Viktor Pinchuk acts in Alfa's interests * Equal ownership seen a condition of truce, end of legal case * Telenor says agreement has yet to be reached OSLO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Norway's Telenor said on Monday it has no plans to sell shares in Vimpelcom to achieve equal ownership with Russian co-investor Alfa-Group, which it says already has effective control over more shares in the mobile phone operator. "Parity will not mean us selling anything. On the contrary, we think they (Alfa-Group) own significantly more than we do," Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard told Reuters on Monday. The two shareholders, at loggerheads over control of Vimpelcom, last week moved a step closer to a truce by taking near equal stakes in the group which holds a quarter of Russia's mobile market but earns the bulk of its revenue abroad. Alfa's unit Altimo raised its holding to 40.5 percent recently and urged Telenor to sell it some of its own Vimpelcom stake, which is set to rise to 43 percent as a result of an options deal. But Telenor claimed a 6 percent stake held Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Pinchuk should be counted as part of the Alfa stake. "We believe that the stake held by Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk's investment company are actually shares parked by Altimo. So we consider that Altimo's stake is actually 46.5 percent," Melgaard said. The parity ownership is seen as a precondition for withdrawal of a Russian regulator's lawsuit challenging the dominant position of Telenor in Vimpelcom whose Russian unit is considered by the Russian government a "strategic asset". Evgeny Dumalkin, vice-president of Altimo, denied Pinchuk was acting in Altimo's interests. Representatives for Pinchuk were not immediately available for comment. Pinchuk's company EastOne, which controls Ukraine's biggest steel pipe producer Interpipe, bought the stake via its investment vehicle Bertofan Investments in January. The seller, Oleg Kiselev, had owned the Vimpelcom shares only since June 2011 when he bought the stake, equal to 5.995 percent of all Vimpelcom outstanding voting shares, from Altimo. Melgaard said Telenor had informed the Russian anti-monopoly regulator FAS of its position regarding Altimo's alleged affiliation with Pinchuk. "What their stand is on this remains to be seen. The lawsuit is still active," said Melgaard. "We have not agreed to anything as of yet." The watchdog's lawsuit, filed in April, aims to overturn Telenor's February purchase of shares in Vimpelcom, which took its shareholding above Altimo's. FAS is seeking an out-of-court settlement of the case. FAS said on Friday it was too early to talk about withdrawing the lawsuit, although it welcomed the deal that saw Altimo raise its Vimpelcom stake. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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