Russia's Altimo Slams Telenor on Geneva Tribunal Release
MOSCOW, Jan 30 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's Altimo has criticized Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor for issuing Tuesday a "misleading" press release on a recent ruling by a Geneva arbitration tribunal on board nomination procedures at VimpelCom.
Both companies are shareholders of the second largest Russian mobile operator.
Altimo, the telecommunications arm of Russian industrial and financial holding Alfa Group, claimed that Telenor made three misleading statements in its release earlier in the day.
Altimo claimed that in its interim ruling dated January 25, a Geneva arbitration tribunal said that Eco Telecom's approach to VimpelCom's board nomination procedures was "absolutely appropriate" and found no breaches in it. Eco Telecom is the subsidiary of Altimo that controls the company's stake in VimpelCom.
Altimo also claimed that the tribunal confirmed its right to nominate up to nine candidates to VimpelCom's board of directors, thus Altimo said "rejecting Telenor's claim".
Altimo also said that the tribunal confirmed its right to reject or approve one of the two independent candidates nominated by Telenor, claiming that the Norwegian company attempted "to misinterpret" the VimpelCom shareholders' agreement.
Earlier Tuesday Telenor said that in its interim ruling dated January 25, the Geneva arbitration tribunal ruled that Alfa Group could not nominate more than four candidates to VimpelCom's nine-seat board of directors.
Telenor also said in its statement that Alfa Group violated the VimpelCom shareholders' agreement in 2005 and 2006 by nominating more candidates to the VimpelCom board than it was entitled to.
Telenor also said that the tribunal required that one of the four candidates nominated by Alfa Group and two of five candidates nominated by Telenor should be independent. The tribunal also ruled that Alfa Group should approve one of at least five potential candidates nominated as Telenor's fifth candidate, who should be independent, Telenor said.
The tribunal is expected to maintain its jurisdiction over VimpelCom's board nomination and election process through the 2007 annual general meeting (AGM) of the company's shareholders and to issue a final ruling after the AGM, Telenor said.
"The tribunal has upheld the validity of the agreement and crafted a remedy that provides the parties with guidance as to how the nomination process should be conducted and will ensure compliance with the tribunal's award," Telenor's spokesman Dag Melgaard said in his company's carefully worded statement. "We are delighted with this outcome," he said. "Our objective in bringing this arbitration has been to force Alfa to comply with the VimpelCom shareholders' agreement."
In its sharply worded statement, Altimo said that Telenor "seemed to misinterpret the facts in order to gain PR leverage in the media."
"Altimo is pleased that the tribunal rejected Telenor's attempt to commandeer the nomination process for the VimpelCom board. We are sorry that Telenor proceeds with its tactics of misleading the media with its statements questionably true," said Kirill Babaev, Altimo's vice president, as quoted in his company's statement.
Telenor initiated court proceedings against Alfa Group and its affiliates Eco Telecom, CTF Holdings and Eco Holdings in November 2005.
Telenor holds 26.6% of voting shares in VimpelCom, while Altimo holds 35.8%. VimpelCom's free float accounts for almost 37%.
At the moment, Alfa Group has five directors on VimpelCom's board and Telenor has four.
End"
Posted to the site on 31st January 2007