A London court hearing over VimpelCom’s US$6bn merger with Wind Telecom will take place on Tuesday, Reuters reports quoting a spokeswoman at Telenor.
Last month, Norway’s Telenor petitioned the Commercial Court in London for interim injunctive relief for…
A London court hearing over VimpelCom’s US$6bn merger with Wind Telecom will take place on Tuesday, Reuters reports quoting a spokeswoman at Telenor.
Last month, Norway’s Telenor petitioned the Commercial Court in London for interim injunctive relief for its arbitration action against VimpelCom Ltd and Altimo.
A decision in favour of Telenor would pave the way for a lengthy arbitration process. In this case, VimpelCom would be obliged to place new shares into an escrow account so that Telenor’s shareholding remains the same if investors vote for the merger and the Norwegian company wins the arbitration case.
Telenor started arbitration proceedings on January 28 to protect its pre-emptive right in VimpelCom’s proposed acquisition of Wind Telecom.
VimpelCom argues that the merger is not subject to pre-emptive rights because a subsidiary of Alfa Group already owns shares in Orascom, meaning that existing shareholders cannot buy into new share issues.
A Vimpelcom shareholders meeting has been called for March 17 to approve the merger with Wind Telecom.
VimpelCom Ltd announced that independent proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis & Co and Egan-Jones have indicated that they support the transaction, while Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has advised against it.
