Russia's Alfa Group Unit Says Won't Change Stake in MegaFon

MOSCOW, May 29 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's CT Mobile, indirectly controlled by Alfa Group, does not plan to sell its stake or purchase additional stakes in Russia?s third largest mobile operator MegaFon, CT Mobile's General Director Dmitry Vozianov told a news conference Monday.

Vozianov estimated CT Mobile's 25.1% stake in MegaFon at about U.S. $1.7 billion.

Vozianov also said that the company did not plan to nominate its own candidates for MegaFon's board of directors. At MegaFon's annual general meeting of shareholders (AGM), which is scheduled for June 29, CT Mobile plans to support two independent directors from the current board, namely, Alexander Okun, president of Kaskol UK Ltd., and Charles Frank, former vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and a board of directors' member of Russia?s second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom in 2002. CT Mobile also plans to support the candidacy of MegaFon's former independent director Mohammed Amersi, co-owner of Emergent Telecom Ventures, who was on the board in June-November 2005, Vozianov said.

Speaking about a number of lawsuits that challenge CT Mobile's ownership of the stake in MegaFon, Vozianov said that they were not related to CT Mobile and involve only two companies, the IPOC International Growth Fund and LV Finance.

A claim filed by the IPOC fund with the Arbitration Court for St. Petersburg seeking to get rights to the 25.1% stake has no legal grounds, Vozianov added.

IPOC fund has been challenging the ownership rights of the 25.1% stake in MegaFon for several years in Russia and abroad.

In April, the fund filed a claim with the Arbitration Court for St. Petersburg, following which the stake was frozen. The hearings are scheduled for June.

Meanwhile, a Swiss court rejected on May 22 IPOC fund's claim seeking to get control over the disputed stake.

Bermuda Islands-based IPOC, which has an 8% stake in MegaFon, has launched a number of court cases against Alfa Group and LV Finance, claiming that Alfa Group's purchase of CT Mobile in 2003 was illegal and that it had earlier signed an option to purchase CT Mobile from the former shareholder, LV Finance.

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Posted to the site on 29th May 2006