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Court adjourns Telenor appeal against order to pay $1.7 bln to VimpelCom until June 10 |
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 [26.05.06]
(Interfax) - The Federal Arbitration Court for the Western Siberia District has adjourned a second appeal by Telenor against a ruling by the 8th Appeals Court in Omsk ordering the Norwegian company to pay just over $1.7 billion in damages to Russian cellular provider VimpelCom (RTS: VIMP) until June 10.
The hearing was adjourned because the summons for the lawyer representing co-respondents Mikhail Fridman, head of the Alfa-Group, and Alexei Reznikovich, head of Alfa's telecommunications arm Altimo, had been served incorrectly.
At the end of February the Omsk appeals court ordered Telenor, which owns 29.9% of VimpelCom, to pay $1.728 billion to the Russian company in a lawsuit filed by Farimex, a firm that owns ADR for 0.002% of VimpelCom shares. Farimex claimed Telenor was responsible for losses VimpelCom incurred by delaying the Russian company's expansion into Ukraine with the acquisition of Ukrainian Radiosystems (URS).
Telenor refused to comply and claims might now be made against the Norwegian company's shares in VimpelCom. Bailiffs on March 11 seized 26.6% of VimpelCom shares held by Telenor under the Farimex lawsuit. Only VimpelCom shares that Telenor holds in the form of ADR were not seized.
Telenor filed a motion with the Western Siberia court district to stay the payment order, but it was denied, and the decision to deny the motion was upheld on April 28.
In addition, the Moscow Arbitration Court Tuesday adjourned a suit brought by Telenor seeking to challenge an order by bailiffs to pay an enforcement fee of $120 million (4.043 billion rubles) in favor VimpelCom. A court official told Interfax that these hearings were adjourned until June 1 at the judge's request.
The Inter-district Department of the Federal Bailiff Service's Moscow Region Main Directorate is the respondent in the suit.
Telenor has told Interfax that this suit specifically seeks to suspend enforcement proceedings where these concern the order to pay the $120 million, and also objects to a valuation of the VimpelCom shares based on information provided by the RTS stock exchange. The RTS said in response to a request from the bailiffs that the 26.6% was worth $1.8 billion.
The Moscow Arbitration Court is also considering a Telenor suit to suspend enforcement proceedings resulting from the suit brought by Farimex. The next hearing is scheduled for June 3. (Source: Interfax)
[ russia-media.RU – Murmansk & Shtokman News / FLAIT Murmansk ]
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