A Moscow Arbitration court has blocked the planned merger of Altimo and TeliaSonera’s stakes in the respective Russian and Turkish mobile operators MegaFon and Turkcell.
The lawsuit had been brought by Telekominvest, MegaFon’s third shareholder, on the…
A Moscow Arbitration court has blocked the planned merger of Altimo and TeliaSonera’s stakes in the respective Russian and Turkish mobile operators MegaFon and Turkcell.
The lawsuit had been brought by Telekominvest, MegaFon’s third shareholder, on the grounds that Russian law forbids state-owned foreign investors from controlling a strategic Russian company such as MegaFon.
Telekominvest is owned by Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov. Its CEO Ivan Streshinsky was quoted saying that Altimo and TeliaSonera would again be invited to start negotiations to sell their stakes to Telecominvest.
A spokesman at Altimo said that the company had not yet received details of the resolution but was planning to appeal the decision.
Neither TeliaSonera nor Telecominvest was immediately available for comment.
Last November, TeliaSonera and Alfa Group’s Altimo agreed to merge their shareholdings in Turkcell and MegaFon into a new entity. Altimo, which is controlled by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, holds a 25.1% stake in MegaFon and a 4.99% stake in Turkcell. TeliaSonera owns 43.8% and 37.3% in MegaFon and Turkcell respectively.
