Norwegian telecom firm Telenor and Russia’s Altimo are to create a mobile operator to end a long-running feud over control of one of Russia’s main mobile service providers, the companies said yesterday.
Telenor and Altimo will combine their common assets in VimpelCom and Kyivstar to create a new mobile operator, in a deal that means “resolution of all outstanding disputes” between the two firms, the companies said in a joint statement.
“We have turned a five-year struggle into an exciting venture for the future,” Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and chief executive of Telenor Group, said in the statement.
Altimo is the telecoms arm of Alfa Group, one of Russia’s largest financial-industrial conglomerates, whose main shareholder is billionaire Mikhail Fridman.
Telenor had been involved in a half-decade-long dispute with Alfa Group over control of Vimpelcom, Russia’s second largest mobile operator.
Altimo and Telenor have now agreed to suspend all their ongoing legal proceedings and will move to withdraw or settle them before the deal is completed by the middle of next year, the companies said.
Under the deal, Telenor would receive 35.42 percent of voting shares in the new firm, while Altimo would get 43.89 percent. The new company will be called VimpelCom Ltd, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and incorporated in Bermuda.
“The governance structure agreed for VimpelCom Ltd is designed to significantly reduce the potential for new disputes between the shareholders,” the companies said.
The five-year battle saw many proceedings in the Russian court system, which raised concerns about the business climate for foreign firms working in Russia.
In June, Moscow ordered the sale of almost all of the 30 percent stake owned by Telenor in Vimpelcom, after seizing the Norwegian firm’s stake in a legal row.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique