Telenor appeal adjourned again

2009-10-29

Telenor, the Norwegian telecom company, has recently announced that the Federal Business Court of Tyumen in Western Siberia has adjourned the company’s appeal against a $1.7bn damages payout for the third time.
As we reported in previous issues, in April 2008 Farimex Products Inc., the minority shareholder in VimpelCom, filed a court petition against Telenor, who, it claimed, caused VimpelCom to suffer losses by delaying its entry on the Ukrainian mobile market. In February 2009, the court in Omsk decided to fine Telenor $1.7bn. The company, however, refused to pay. As a result its stake in the Russian Vimpelcom was taken over. Since that moment Telenor’s appeal has been adjourned three times. The appeal was initially to have been heard on 26 May 2009, but this date was postponed first to 10 June 2009 and then to 30 September 2009.
At the most recent hearing, the court granted a motion by Farimex to delay the appeal and adjourned the hearing again, to 24 March 2010.