Seizure of Telenor Vimpelcom stake by Russian Court

The Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor had recently accused its Russian partner Alfa Group – they claim that the latter was trying to steal its own strategic stake in the company Vimpelcom right after one Russian court seized the shares of the second largest mobile operator in the country. A company run by the billionaire Russian Mikhail Fridman, Alfa Group had rejected any kind of connection they had to Vimpelcom’s case and stated that the company Telenor has been trying to take over their Ukrainian mobile venture assisted by a United States federal court. The shares of Telenor had fallen down seven point eight percent by thirty three point twenty five crowns during 1211 GMT. At that time, the Telecom Index of the Dow Jones .SXKP had gone up 0.3 percent.

Some Losses Prior to Trading

The shares of Vimpelcom had not begun to trade in Moscow, but the MICEX of Moscow (share index) depicted some accelerated losses because of the news and ended up standing at three point zero three percent lower on that day. One Moscow-based trader also said that this news about the Vimpelcom had hit the market very hard today. One Siberian court also said in the previous month that it ruled in the favor of Vimpelcom shareholder Farimex, who also mentioned that Telenor had caused some losses because of delays of Vimpelcom’s entry into the country of Ukraine. They had also ordered the Norwegian group to hand over one billion and seven million United States dollars as form of payment to Vimpelcom.

Stock Seizure of Vimpelcom

When Telenor had appealed against such a decision and then decided that they did not want to pay, a Russian bailiff ended up seizing the Vimpelcom stock. This means that they cannot sell their stakes or even use such things as collateral. However, the shares will still remain in the possession of Telenor. The company owns around twenty nine point nine percent of the voting stock of Vimpelcom and thirty three point six percent of their ordinary shares. Time and again, Telenor had repeatedly said it continues to believe that the Farimex Company (a company registered in the British Virgin Islands) was also linked to the company Alfa and that such a claim was vehemently denied by such a Russian conglomerate.