Altimo Satisfied With US Ruling on Vimpelcom Share Purchase

STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Altimo Wednesday said it's satisfied with the decision by a U.S. District Court to reject three claims Telenor had filed related to its purchase of Vimpelcom shares.

"After this legal victory, we are eager to proceed with vigorously defending our legal position against Telenor's destructive effort improperly to pressure Altimo and to cause some questionable PR attention," said Kirill Babaev, Vice President of Altimo.

On May 25, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York threw out at the preliminary stage three of the five substantive counts that Telenor brought against Altimo and its affiliates on the ground that these claims did not state proper claims under U.S. law.

It follows an action by Telenor against Altimo in June 2007 in the federal court in New York, which claimed that Altimo had violated U.S. securities laws when it bought 9.5% of VimpelCom shares between 2006-2007.

On Monday, the court dismissed that Altimo had engaged in insider trading, saying that Telenor's "bare" assertions do "not suffice" and that nowhere did Telenor allege that the Altimo nominees on the VimpelCom board revealed to anyone the information they had. The court also rejected Telenor's claim that Altimo intended to take VimpelCom private.

Altimo said the remaining two counts were left for closer scrutiny because Telenor has pled some facts that still remain to be tested.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 26th March 2008