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Telenor Will Defend Against New Claim by Alfa
FORNEBU, Norway, May 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Three of Telenor's nominees
to the Board of Directors of VimpelCom and VimpelCom itself have been named as
defendants in a lawsuit brought by Eco Telecom Limited, a subsidiary of the
Alfa Group Consortium. The suit is the fourth in a series of lawsuits aimed at
undermining the corporate governance of Russia's second-largest mobile
operator.
On Thursday of last week, Telenor obtained a copy of a lawsuit filed by Eco
Telecom on May 16 in the Moscow Arbitrazh Court and naming Arve Johansen,
Henrik Torgersen, Jo Lunder and VimpelCom as defendants. Messrs. Johansen,
Torgersen and Lunder were all nominated to the Board of Directors of VimpelCom
by Telenor East Invest, the Telenor subsidiary that owns 26.6% of VimpelCom's
voting shares. Mr. Lunder, who is the CEO of Ementor ASA, currently serves as
VimpelCom's Chairman of the Board and is a former CEO of VimpelCom.
Eco Telecom's claim seeks, among other things, to reverse the outcome of a vote
taken by VimpelCom's Board of Directors on April 22 which resulted in the Board
failing to approve the proposed acquisition by VimpelCom of ZAO Ukrainian Radio
Systems (trade-named WellCom) by the requisite majority set out in VimpelCom's
charter. Eco Telecom has also requested that, in connection with such
acquisition, the court treat the quorum and super-majority provisions of
VimpelCom's charter as inapplicable. Eco Telecom's claim was accepted by the
court on May 17, and a preliminary hearing date has been set for June 14.
"In bringing this most recent lawsuit, Alfa is finally openly revealing that it
is trying to undermine VimpelCom's charter and corporate governance," said
Telenor chief press spokesman, Dag Melgaard. "We will not be deterred by these
continued attacks, and will vigorously defend VimpelCom's charter and the
interests of both Telenor's shareholders and VimpelCom's minority shareholders.
We believe that there are no legitimate grounds for Alfa's suit, and that the
Russian courts will support us in that view."
Further information:
Chief Press Spokesman, Telenor ASA, Dag Melgaard,
Tel (+47) 901 92 000
DATASOURCE: Telenor
CONTACT: Chief Press Spokesman, Telenor ASA, Dag Melgaard,
+47-901-92-000
Web site: http://www.telenor.com/