Alfa Group-Telenor dispute features prominently in Russia-Norway talks in Moscow
MOSCOW, Russia - The ongoing corporate dispute between the Russian holding Alpha Group and the Norwegian telecommunication giant Telenor over the latter’s stake in Russian mobile company VimpelCom was prominent on the Russian and Norwegian prime ministers’ agenda during their recent meeting in Moscow.
The dispute assumed a new dimension earlier this year, when the South-Siberian Federal Arbitration Court struck off Telenor’s petition for a stay of execution of a lower court’s decision obligating it to pay almost $1.73bln. The arbitration court’s ruling later led to the arrest of 26.6% of the Norwegian company’s 29.9% stake in VimpelCom, where Alfa Group holds a majority stake, to secure the debt. The Moscow Arbitration Court is scheduled to rule on Telenor’s new appeal June 3.
However, both Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Norwegian counterpart, Jens Stoltenberg, were forced at their final press conference on the results of their bilateral talks in the Russian capital to devote more time to explaining their stances on the Alfa Group-Telenor corporate dispute as the press corps repeatedly peppered them with questions on the issue, while paying little or no attention to other major items on the bilateral talks’ agenda, which had included both countries' cooperation in Shtokman fields and other strategic issues.
Thus, feeding questions on the conflict, Putin noted that the Russian government does not have any interest or stake in the final outcome of the dispute. “The Russian government is neither a shareholder of VimpelCom, nor Alfa Group, and, of course, neither Telenor, and consequently, can be absolutely neutral and independent," he added, noting that the Norwegian authorities own a blocking stake of over 25% in Telenor. “Therefore, the Russian government’s key task in this issue is simply to create conditions that will ensure positve resolution of this corporate dispute between these two legal entities in a normal legal environment.”
And, speaking more broadly on the issue of foreign investors in Russia, Putin noted that the Russian political leadership is highly interested in ensuring that all foreign investors feel very comfortable in Russia in general, and in the specific industrial sectors, where they are directly involved in particular. “This desire does not, however, always coincide with the interests of all the participants of economic activities - both foreign and local – on the Russian market,” he added. “But it is clear that everyone, both foreign and local investors in Russia, should play according to the existing rules of law, and, in this case – according to the Russian legislations.”
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