Telenor Says Lawsuit in Khanty-Mansiysk in Siberia Has No Merit
April 17 2008 - 7:28AM
Marketwired
OSLO, NORWAY On April 14, 2008, Telenor Russia received an
undated claim in a lawsuit filed in the Khanty-Mansiysk business
court in Siberia by Farimex Products, Inc., a British Virgin
Islands company whose beneficial ownership was not disclosed in the
court filings. The lawsuit's claims against Telenor are that
Telenor harmed VimpelCom by preventing VimpelCom from purchasing
Kyivstar and delaying VimpelCom's purchase of Ukrainian Radio
Systems. Alfa Group subsidiary Eco Telecom made a similar claim
against Telenor in a recently filed Geneva arbitration
proceeding.
Although Farimex says it owns only 1,250 common VimpelCom shares
(with a current market value of less than USD 800,000), Farimex is
claiming damages of close to USD 3.8 billion and has requested the
Khanty-Mansiysk court to arrest all of Telenor's shares in
VimpelCom. Khanty-Mansiysk is a remote town in Siberia, 2,759
kilometers from Moscow, in Russia's largest oil producing province.
This follows a recent, largely identical claim raised by Eco
Telecom, a part of the Alfa Group, seeking a similar compensation
through international arbitration proceedings.
"This lawsuit has no merit," said Telenor Chief Press Spokesman
Dag Melgaard. "Telenor's investment in VimpelCom is one of our
largest assets, and we have always acted in VimpelCom's best
interests. We also find it peculiar that a lawsuit from a company
based in the British Virgin Islands should be launched in this
Siberian city, and we are investigating the question of who is
behind it."
Telenor owns 33.6 percent of VimpelCom's shares of common stock
and 29.9 percent of VimpelCom's voting capital stock.
Further information:
Evgenia Cheredkova, PR and Communcations Manager, Telenor Russia
Tel: +7495 937 14 64 or mobile: +7903 680 00 40,
email: evgenia.cheredkova@telenor.com
Copyright � Hugin AS 2008. All rights reserved.
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