Court to Hear CT Mobile's Appeal of MegaFon Stake Freeze

MOSCOW, June 15 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's Arbitration Court for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region plans to hear July 27 an appeal filed by CT Mobile against the freeze of its 25.1% stake in Russia?s third largest mobile operator MegaFon, CT Mobile's General Director Dmitry Vozianov told a news conference Thursday.

"The appeal was filed about three weeks ago," he said.

In April, the court froze CT Mobile's 25.1% stake in MegaFon following a lawsuit filed by IPOC International Growth Fund.

The court then scheduled the preliminary hearings of the lawsuit filed by IPOC for June 19.

IPOC filed the lawsuit with the court after U.K.'s Privy Council refused to consider the lawsuit, saying that it should be considered by a Russian court.

Bermuda Islands-based IPOC, which has an 8% stake in MegaFon, has launched a number of court cases against Alfa Group, 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.

IPOC said last week that the Bermuda Supreme Court suspended IPOC's court action in Russia regarding a controlling stake in MegaFon following a claim filed by Alfa Group.

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Posted to the site on 15th June 2006