MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russia's second-largest mobile-phone operator OAO Vimpel Communications (VIP) Wednesday said a merger with its subsidiaries and a subsequent license transfer won't lead to a halt in operations.
VimpelCom holds operation licenses via its two fully owned subsidiaries, KB Impuls and OAO Vimpelcom-R, for Moscow and for regions, while some licenses are held by the parent company OAO VimpelCom.
VimpelCom is planning to merge all subsidiaries and consolidate all licenses under one umbrella so as not to have the regulator question legitimacy of operations. Earlier this year VimpelCom won a court case against the industry watchdog Gossvyaznadzor over the legitimacy of operating in Moscow.
However, according to Russian law, a merger has to happen first, then the former subsidiaries have to be liquidated and only then the company applies for new licenses, meaning there is about a 30-day period when the newly merged companies don't have all the licenses.
"A letter from the Federal Communications Service that we received on Oct. 18 explains that VimpelCom won't have to halt operations at any time during the merger," a VimpelCom spokeswoman said.
VimpelCom plans to finish the merger, which has already been approved by the shareholders, by early December.
The Information Technology and Communications Ministry spokeswoman has also told Dow Jones Newswires earlier that the Ministry saw no problem with VimpelCom's planned merger and license transfers.
Company Web site: http://www.vimpelcom.com
-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; 7095-974-8055; anna.galitsina@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 27th October 2004
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/11256.php