Norwegian incumbent Telenor is planning legal actions that could delay Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom’s agreed US$6.5bn takeover of Weather Investments, reports the Financial Times.
Telenor is trying to delay a Vimpelcom shareholders meeting scheduled…
Norwegian incumbent Telenor is planning legal actions that could delay Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom’s agreed US$6.5bn takeover of Weather Investments, reports the Financial Times.
Telenor is trying to delay a Vimpelcom shareholders meeting scheduled for March 17, which has been called to approve the merger with Wind Telecom. The parties had aimed for the transaction to complete in June.
Telenor has also launched arbitration proceedings against Vimpelcom and Altimo, its co-shareholder in the group, “in order to protect Telenor’s pre-emptive rights in the context of VimpelCom’s proposed acquisition of Wind Telecom”.
Telenor argues that the proposed acquisition “is not a related M&A transaction… and that Telenor is entitled to exercise its pre-emptive rights”.
Altimo was cited describing the claim as “without merit”, and promising to fight Telenor’s “attempt to distract shareholders from the compelling commercial merits” of the deal.
Earlier this month, Vimpelcom’s board decided that the merger should count as a related-party transaction since a subsidiary controlled by Altimo holds shares in Orascom, which is 50% plus one share owned by Weather.
If the Wind Telecom deal completes, Telenor would see its 36% voting rights at VimpelCom diluted to 25% while Wind would own a 20% stake in the combined entity.
Telenor’s three board representatives have voted against the deal, while Altimo’s three representatives and another three independent board members supported it.
