Moscow's Arbitration Court has announced a delay to its ruling on whether to block the seizure of Telenor's 29.9% stake in Russian telecoms operator, VimpelCom. The hearing is now due on 30th April, and for the first time, the judge has required that VimpelCom send representatives to the court.
An obscure company, Farimex Products based in the British Virgin Islands had sued Telenor in via a court in Siberia claiming losses of US$1.7 billion after it alleged that Telenor's nominees on the VimpelCom Board delayed VimpelCom's acquisition of Ukrainian mobile operator Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS).
Telenor has refused to pay the fine and appealed to the Moscow court to block the Siberian court from arresting its shares in VimpelCom, which were taken in lieu of the fine being paid.
A Russian bailiff working with Farimex had arrested Telenor's shares in VimpelCom by serving an arrest order on the National Registry Company, VimpelCom's Moscow share registrar, just hours after a US court ruled that Alfa Group was acting in contempt of court for its failure to comply with the US court's orders confirming an earlier Kyivstar arbitration award.
Telenor holds 29.9 per cent of the voting shares (33.6 per cent of the common shares) in VimpelCom through its subsidiary Telenor East Invest AS.
Posted to the site on 15th April 2009
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/37017.php