On Monday, October 27, the Omsk Appeal Arbitration Court froze stakes in VimpelCom belonging to the largest shareholder – Telenor East Invest of Norwegian telecoms company Telenor, and Altimo, the telecoms arm of Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group. Telenor owns 29.9% of VimpelCom’s voting stock, while Altimo controls 44%. The Russian mobile company is also partially controlled by British Virgin Islands-registered Farimex Products. The Omsk Appeal Arbitration Court satisfied claim filed by Farimex, having frozen the stakes held by Telenor and Altimo.
Some months ago the court of Khanty-Mansiysk issued a decision in favor of VimpelCom, on the lawsuit filed by this company against the Norwegian Telenor, and decided that Telenor is liable for $2.8 billion in damages. The Norwegian company filed an appeal to the Omsk Court which is to be heard on November 18.
Despite the fact that the case has not come to its end yet, VimpelCom announced on Monday that it had acquired a 49.9% stake in Euroset for around $226 million. After this the Omsk Appeal Arbitration Court decided to prohibit all actions, direct or otherwise directed towards the acquisition of the assets. The BVI company Farimex said the latest court order would prevent Altimo and Telenor from disposing of VimpelCom’s shares until a settlement is reached on the August court decision.
Alfa-controlled Altimo did not give any comments on the decision, just confirming the fact that the shares in Vimpelcom have been frozen.