Sweden’s TeliaSonera and Russia’s Altimo are to appeal a court ruling blocking their plans to merge their respective Russian and Turkish telecoms assets. The two firms are attempting to combine their direct and indirect interests in Turkey’s Turkcell and Russian MegaFon into a new company, though the deal is being contested by AF Telecom, the second-largest shareholder in MegaFon (via its Telecominvest subsidiary). The Russian courts have twice ruled in favour on AF Telecom, most recently in a ruling last October. “TeliaSonera and Altimo disagree with the court’s decision and believe that it is based on an insufficient analysis of facts and applicable rules and statutes,” the Swedish firm said in a statement today.

TeliaSonera and Altimo announced their merger plans in November 2009 in an attempt to create an international operator with over 90 million subscribers across Russia, Turkey and the CIS countries. TeliaSonera currently owns 43.8 percent of MegaFon, the third-largest Russian mobile operator, and 37.3 percent of Turkcell, the Turkish market-leader. Altimo owns 25.1 percent of MegaFon and 4.99 percent of Turkcell. Under the new structure, the new company will own a majority of the shares in both Turkcell and MegaFon. TeliaSonera claims that AF Telecom was invited to join the new company, but the Russian firm was clearly uphappy with the terms. In April 2010, AF Telecom (via Telecominvest) filed a claim in a Moscow court stating that articles of the agreement between TeliaSonera and Altimo which relate to MegaFon should be declared null and void.