By Olga Razumovskaya
MOSCOW--A vice president of Altimo, a shareholder of Russian
telecom operator VimpelCom Ltd. (VIP), on Tuesday criticized
largest VimpelCom shareholder Telenor ASA (TEL.OS) over its
reluctance to accept equal ownership of VimpelCom between foreign
and Russian investors.
The conflict between Norway's Telenor and Altimo, part of
Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, started when
Telenor last year opposed VimpelCom's stock-and-cash acquisition of
Wind Telecom, which was controlled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib
Sawiris.
Telenor said Monday it has no plans to sell shares in VimpelCom
to achieve equal ownership with Altimo, Reuters reported.
Telenor "is pursuing its own interests in detriment of the
interests of VimpelCom and all the shareholders," said Evgeny
Dumalkin, vice president at Altimo.
"It is not the first time that Telenor has shown a similar
unconstructive tactic," he said. Altimo had a similar dispute with
Telenor over the entrance to the Ukrainian market in 2004.
He said Telenor is showing disrespect toward the Russian
government and the court, which ordered Telenor not to increase its
stake in the company. Telenor increased its stake following
Altimo's increase of its stake in VimpelCom.
Mr. Dumalkin also denied statements from Telenor that the
Ukrainian investment fund East One owns 6% of VimpelCom shares in
the interests of Altimo.
"It is unclear how Telenor's actions affect the shareholders and
VimpelCom," Telenor Russia spokeswoman Anna Ivanova-Galitsina told
Dow Jones. "We are now in constructive talks with the Federal
Antimonopoly Service. In fact, we just had a conversation on Friday
during which it was said that the main condition (of amicable
dispute resolution) should be parity between Altimo and Telenor,
not parity between Altimo and the foreign investors."
Write to Olga Razumovskaya at olga.razumovskaya@dowjones.com
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