Norway’s Telenor has hinted that it could sell its stake in Russia’s VimpelCom in order to settle its long-running dispute with Alfa Group, the other main VimpelCom shareholder. “We might be flexible regarding our VimpelCom stake. That is one of the many possible outcomes of this conflict,” Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard told Reuters, but added that the group still had “long-term ambitions” for Russia and had not begun any sales process. He also confirmed that Telenor would not look to sell its stake in Ukrainian market-leader Kyivstar, another joint shareholding with Alfa Group. Telenor owns just under a 30 percent voting stake in VimpelCom compared to Alfa’s 44 percent stake, but the situation is different in the Ukraine where Telenor has over a 50 percent shareholding. According to Reuters, Norwegian daily Aftenposten had earlier reported that Telenor may be looking to sell its stake in VimpelCom for NOK45 billion (US$8.33 billion), causing a brief spike in its share price.
Relations between Telenor and Alfa have reportedly been strained for a number of years. Among the issues is VimpelCom’s 2005 acquisition of small Ukrainian mobile operator Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS) – a competitor to Kyivstar – that created a dilemma for Telenor as a co-owner in both companies. Last week, a Siberian court ordered Telenor to pay damages of US$2.8 billion to VimpelCom for allegedly delaying the deal. Telenor plans to appeal the ruling.
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