May be sold before appeal
Telenor says its Vimpelcom stocks may be sold on auction before last Friday’s court verdict can be appealed.
As BarentsObserver reported last Friday the Norwegian telecommunications firm Telenor was convicted to pay 1.7 billion USD in damages to the company Farimex, a shareholder in VimpelCom. Telenor said they were considering its legal options as they awaited the Siberian court’s verdict in writing.
The problem is: The verdict cannot be appealed before the verdict in writing is presented. And the verdict in writing will not be available before March 2nd, while the legal right to enforce the 1.7 billion USD is valid from the day of the verdict, Friday February 20th.
Norwegian business daily Dagens Næringsliv writes about the case. Interviewed by the newspaper Telenor’s press-spokesman Dag Melgaard says that if Telenor loose the money this shows how big risk it is by doing business in Russia.
Dagens Næringsliv also writes that the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, Sylvia Brustad after the court rulings wrote a letter to Russian deputy Prime Minister Zubkov about the Telenor-case. Brustad would not elaborate the content of the letter.
Farimex had sought to freeze Telenor’s 29,9 percent stake in Vimpelcom as security against the damages it claimed, but the court turned down that request. The conflict between Telenor and VimpelCom has been going on for five years.
