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Telenor May Sell VimpelCom Stake if Shareholder Dispute is Not Resolved
Published on:
Norway's Telenor may consider selling its stake in Russia's VimpelCom as its ongoing dispute with fellow shareholder, Altimo shows no signs of being resolved.
"It depends on what has been put on the table. We should be pragmatic. We are realistic to the extent that others have a strong appetite," Telenor's CEO, Jon Baksaas, told the Financial Times, when asked about whether the company would sell its stake.
The stake is estimated to be worth around US$6.5 billion. Altimo has the cash to buy Telenor's stake in the company, as it received US$5.2 billion from the sale of its stake in rival mobile network, MegaFon -- which also avoids any issues of a monopoly investigation.
However Baksaas noted that the two sides have not discussed a sale. Yet.
The dispute between the two main shareholders looked like it had been resolved a couple of years ago, but flared up again when VimpelCom launched a takeover of Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which Telenor opposed due to the way it would change the shareholder ballance.
Earlier this week, Altimo formalised a long standing suspicion that it had control of more shares than were officially allocated when it bought the stake from a Ukrainian businessman, making it officially the largest shareholder in the company.
On the web: Financial Times
Tags: [vimpelcom] [altimo] [telenor] [Russia]
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