Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor is almost sure that their real opponents in the long dispute over control of Russia’s VimpelCom are Alfa Group and its owner Mikhail Friedman. This cannot be proved, and Fridman and Alfa deny this fact.
Telenor is now appealing last week legal decision that is to deprive it of 29.9% share in Russia’s mobile operator, which followed Telenor’s rejection to pay $1.7 billion to VimpelCom. Earlier the company appealed a decision of the Russian Arbitration Court, which satisfied the claim of the BVI-based Farimex.
The Telenor-VimpelCom case followed Alfa Group’s case with British oil company BP PLC over their TNK-BP joint venture, which was succeeded by the Russian group, and raised doubt that BP would be able to retain control of TNK-BP.
According to the Norway’s company representatives, Farimex Products, a company with a little stake (0.002 per cent) in mobile company VimpelCom, last year initiated a lawsuit against Telenor as part of a wider effort by Alfa to gain control of their joint assets – VimpelCom in Russia, and Kyivstar in Ukraine.
Alfa is said to have 44 percent of VimpelCom’s stock through its Eco Telecom unit. The director of US-based Firebird management fund manager said that Farimex is very transparently a front for Alfa. Alfa itself rejects any ties with BVI-registered Farimex, but the common view of market observers is that Telenor-VimpelCom suit is an Alfa action.