Alfa Complies With Court Order On Vimpelcom Board Nominations

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russian financial-industrial holding company Alfa Group Monday withdrew one of its candidates for election to the board of mobile phone network operator OAO Vimpel Communications, VimpelCom core shareholder Telenor said in a statement.

Its move complies with an order 18 by a Geneva arbitration tribunal in April, requesting it to pull all but four of its candidates for election to the VimpelCom Board on or before 14 May.

Telenor holds 29.9% of the voting stock, while Alfa holds 42.4%. Both companies have been buying VimpelCom shares on the open market to improve their respective voting positions before this year's annual shareholder meeting.

The two sides have both publicly expressed the desire to negotiate separations terms but have been unable to agree anything yet.

The candidates for election to the VimpelCom Board at VimpelCom's 2007 annual shareholder meeting are: Mikhail Fridman, David Haines, Stig Herbern, Arve Johansen, Kjell Morten Johnsen, Jo Lunder, Oleg Malis, Leonid Novoselsky, Alexey Reznikovich and Fridtjof Rusten

Web site: http://www.vimpelcom.com

-By Geoffrey T. Smith, Dow Jones Newswires; (+7 495) 974 8055; geoffrey.smith@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 14th May 2007