Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'Alfa'

Lebanese government intends to enhance network and lower tariffs (Lebanon)

  • October 31st, 2008
  • 5:46 am

The Lebanese telecom ministry seeks to increase the capacity of the two state-owned operators by 80% in order to have better quality of service without any congestion and enhanced value of networks ahead of their planned privatisations.
Roger Najar, the head of the cellular supervisory board reports that the work has already begun on the project. Out of the two operators, Alfa already has appointed Ericsson for network upgradation.
The Telecom Minister, Gebran Bassilhas planned to upgrade the network capacity and lower mobile tariffs.

   

Telenor on the brink of swap deal with Alfa (Norway, Ukraine)

  • October 7th, 2008
  • 1:13 pm

Telenor is very near to an asset swap deal with its Russian investment partner and regular courtroom opponent Alfa Group, which would see Alfa receive a 5% stake in Telenor, media reported. This deal would also involve Alfa handing over its subsidiary Storm’s entire 43.5% stake in Ukraine’s mobile market leader Kyivstar to Telenor, which would in turn transfer around 12% of its 29.9% voting shares in Russian cellco Vimpelcom to Alfa; Kyivstar is currently majority controlled by Telenor, while Alfa is the dominant shareholder in Vimpelcom. 5% stake in telenor woulb be handed  to Alfa’s telecoms arm Altimo by the Norwegian government. Presently it has 54% interest in the multinational fixed line, mobile and broadband operator.

Telenor asks US court to block Alfa lawsuit (Norway)

  • June 24th, 2008
  • 2:38 pm

Norwegian telecom group Telenor asked a US federal court to halt a lawsuit brought against it in Russia by a company controlled by Russia’s Alfa Group.

A Reuters report said the multi-billion lawsuit was filed in a Siberian court by Farimex Products, a fellow shareholder in Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom. Telenor has called it groundless and asked the US Federal District Court in New York to block it.

“Farimex is controlled by Alfa and its claim is just another one of Alfa’s collusive lawsuits,” Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said, quoted by the Reuters report.

British Virgin Islands-based Farimex claims Telenor harmed Vimpelcom by preventing it from purchasing Ukrainian mobile group Kyivstar and delaying Vimpelcom’s purchase of Ukrainian Radio Systems.

   

Minority shareholder sues Telenor for €2.37bn

  • April 18th, 2008
  • 12:05 pm

Telenor’s Russian unit has been sued for €2.37 billion (US$3.8 billion) in a Siberian court in the lastest development in a long legal battle, an Associated Press report said. The Norwegian operator’s Russian business is accused of damaging another Russian mobile operator, VimpelCom, by one of the latter’s minority shareholders.

Telenor said in a statement that it saw no merit in the suit, which follows an almost identical claim for €625,000 (US$1 billion) made by Eco Telecom, part of Russia’s Alfa Group, in March.

Telenor is locked in a struggle with Alfa Group, the main owner of Russia’s OAO Vimpel Communications, over Vimpelcom wanting to buy the Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar GSM, in which Telenor holds a controlling stake.

“The lawsuit’s claims against Telenor are that Telenor harmed VimpelCom by preventing VimpelCom from purchasing Kyivstar and delaying VimpelCom’s purchase of Ukrainian Radio Systems,” the statement said.

The latest suit was filed in Khanty-Mansiysk, a remote town in Siberia 2,759 km (1,714 miles) from Moscow by Farimex Products, a British Virgin Islands company. Telenor noted that the court records did not reveal who owns Farimex Products.

   

 

Golden Telecom buys regional telco (Russia)

  • December 19th, 2007
  • 7:27 am

Fixed line operator Golden Telecom has increased its presence in southern Russia through the acquisition of New Telecom Technologies (NTT), a business services provider based in the city of Krasnodar. ‘Southern Russia is one of the strategic areas for Golden Telecom. The acquisition of NTT will increase the efficiency of our operations and expand network capabilities while providing superior services to our customers,’ Golden Telecom’s CEO, Jean-Pierre Vandromme, said in a statement. Golden Telecom is currently in negotiations with Russia’s second largest cellular operator, Vimpelcom, with the cellco having made a USD4.2 billion takeover for its wireline sister company; both firms have Alfa Group and Telenor as major shareholders.

   

 

Orascom to join Zain, Batelco in Lebanon mobile auction (Egypt)

  • November 6th, 2007
  • 1:28 pm

Egyptian mobile group Orascom Telecom is considering entering the upcoming auction for one of two state-owned Lebanese mobile network operators, its chairman Naguib Sawiris said yesterday. The Egyptian tycoon dismissed risks of political instability in the country, saying that the main problem would be high prices set by the Lebanese government, which hopes to raise as much as USD7 billion from the sale on 21 February. Sawiris said his group, which has stakes in countries including Iraq, Zimbabwe and Pakistan, was used to political and security risks. ‘This is normal for us…Beirut is like a safe haven,’ he told press. At present, Lebanon’s only two mobile networks – MTC Touch Lebanon and Alfa – are managed under government contracts by Kuwaiti-based Zain Group (formerly MTC Group) and German-Saudi consortium DeTeCon respectively. The state also intends to issue a third mobile licence to fixed line incumbent Ogero Telecom (which will be renamed Liban Telecom). Bahrain’s Batelco has also said it is planning investments in Lebanon as part of a USD4 billion foreign acquisition plan, whilst Zain Group has announced a plan to bid in the auction to remain in the country, although it too has expressed concern over high prices.

   

 

Orascom to join Zain, Batelco in Lebanon mobile auction (Egypt)

  • November 6th, 2007
  • 1:28 pm

Egyptian mobile group Orascom Telecom is considering entering the upcoming auction for one of two state-owned Lebanese mobile network operators, its chairman Naguib Sawiris said yesterday. The Egyptian tycoon dismissed risks of political instability in the country, saying that the main problem would be high prices set by the Lebanese government, which hopes to raise as much as USD7 billion from the sale on 21 February. Sawiris said his group, which has stakes in countries including Iraq, Zimbabwe and Pakistan, was used to political and security risks. ‘This is normal for us…Beirut is like a safe haven,’ he told press. At present, Lebanon’s only two mobile networks – MTC Touch Lebanon and Alfa – are managed under government contracts by Kuwaiti-based Zain Group (formerly MTC Group) and German-Saudi consortium DeTeCon respectively. The state also intends to issue a third mobile licence to fixed line incumbent Ogero Telecom (which will be renamed Liban Telecom). Bahrain’s Batelco has also said it is planning investments in Lebanon as part of a USD4 billion foreign acquisition plan, whilst Zain Group has announced a plan to bid in the auction to remain in the country, although it too has expressed concern over high prices.

   

 

Lebanon plans mobile auction for February 2008 (Lebanon)

  • October 11th, 2007
  • 3:10 pm

The sale of Lebanon’s two mobile network operations is set for February 2008. The presidents of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and the Higher Privatization Council told The Daily Star they have prepared the invitation for applications to tender. Interested companies will be allowed to buy two-thirds stakes in each of the mobile networks, while the government will retain a third of the shares. The government will then sell part of its shares in a public offering on the Beirut stock market. The tender documents are expected to be made public in a couple weeks, with technical bids due in January. The telecoms minister has said the government hopes to raise USD 5-6 billion from the sale. Lebanon has just over 1 million mobile users who generate over USD 750 million in annual revenues. Currently MTC Touch and Alfa are operating the two networks in a contract with the government in exchange for a monthly fee of USD 4 million each. Their contracts are set to expire in May and June 2008. Around 7-8 to companies have already shown interest in the auction.

   

Telenor drops objection to Vimpelcom’s purchase of URS, gives hope to Kyivstar debacle? (Ukraine)

  • September 27th, 2007
  • 2:28 pm

Norwegian telecoms group Telenor has announced that it has dropped a long-running legal case in which it objected to Vimpelcom’s 2005 purchase of mobile operator Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS, now rebranded under the Russian cellco’s Beeline trademark), reports the Moscow Times. However, Telenor said it would persist in seeking legal redress in other ongoing disputes with its Russian investment partner Altimo, the telecoms arm of conglomerate Alfa Group, which has a controlling stake in Vimpelcom. The dispute between Altimo and Telenor arose from differences over the strategy and control of Vimpelcom and Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator by subscribers. Altimo and Telenor own 37.7% and 26.6% respective stakes in Vimpelcom, whilst Telenor controls 56.5% of Kyivstar, with 43.5% of the company owned by Altimo; Vimpelcom owns 100% of URS. Alfa also has an indirect interest in another Ukrainian GSM operator, Astelit, through its stake in Turkey’s Turkcell, and a 40% stake in WiMAX provider Ukrainian High Technologies (UHT, Alternet), via its Russian Technologies venture fund, whilst Golden Telecom, which offers fixed and mobile services in both Russia and the Ukraine, is another regional player co-owned by the pair (Alfa 30%, Telenor 20%).

Vimpelcom spokeswoman Yekaterina Osadchaya yesterday welcomed Telenor’s decision, saying that it ‘vindicates our position that we were doing the right thing all along,’ whilst Altimo vice-president Kirill Babayev said his company would welcome future cooperation with Telenor. Relations between the two sides have deteriorated to the point that Telenor has been forced to omit Kyivstar’s results from its financial reports, and Altimo has consistently boycotted shareholder meetings at the Kiev firm, which has been forced to operate without a board of directors. Telenor has called a Kyivstar shareholders meeting for next Monday to resolve corporate governance issues, including re-electing a board, although according to the Moscow Times, neither the Oslo-based group nor the Russian investor has expressed any confidence in an immediate breakthrough being reached. The paper said that Altimo had declined to confirm whether it would attend the meeting.

Telenor has filed a series of lawsuits in Russian courts against Vimpelcom’s USD231 million purchase of URS in an effort to invalidate the deal, on the grounds that the price was excessive and that it already had a presence in the country via Kyivstar, but all the legal bids failed. A New York arbitration court last month ordered Alfa to sell its stake in Kyivstar to a non-affiliated company within 120 days or to relinquish certain holdings in rival Ukrainian operators, but the jurisdiction of the court was questioned by the Russian company. Telenor’s head of Russian operations, Kjell Morten Johnsen, said in an interview given to Russian newspaper Vedomosti yesterday that his company is prepared to drop its ongoing legal actions against Altimo with respect to disputes over its jointly-held Ukrainian assets, if Altimo agrees to abide by the New York court ruling, and stop blocking attempts to elect a board of directors at Kyivstar.

   
 

 

Telenor wins New York arbitration against Alfa

  • August 3rd, 2007
  • 2:52 pm

Telenor has won an arbitration proceeding in New York against Alfa group subsidiary Storm over the parties’ joint investment in Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar. The tribunal has ordered Alfa to sell its Kyivstar stake within 120 days or divest of its holdings in competing operators Turkcel and Ukrainian High Technologies (UHT) above 5 percent. The tribunal found that Alfa subsidiary Storm failed to appoint candidates for election to the Kyivstar board, failed to attend shareholder meetings, owns or controls more than 5 percent in competing companies UHT and Turkcell, and failed to settle the dispute relating to the Kyivstar shareholders agreement. Storm was further ordered to nominate four candidates for election to the Kyivstar board, to attend board meetings and to conform with the shareholders agreement. The court enjoined Storm from pursuing litigation in Ukraine relating to the Kyivstar shareholders agreement. Telenor welcomed the outcome and said it has applied to the District Court in New York to confirm the arbitration award so that Telenor can begin to enforce it against Alfa.