VimpelCom, a leading Russian mobile operator with headquarters in Amsterdam, welcomed yesterday the decision of the English Commercial Court allowing its March 17, 2011 shareholder meeting to go forward as planned.
“The Court denied Telenor’s request for an injunction preventing the meeting from occurring unless VimpelCom agreed to issue pre-emptive shares to Telenor. The Court also refused to accept Telenor’s alternative request to have pre-emptive shares issued to it in escrow pending the outcome of the arbitration initiated by Telenor,” states VimpelCom on its website.
Telenor commenced the arbitration on January 28, 2011 seeking enforcement of its alleged pre-emptive rights as a VimpelCom shareholder in regard to shares to a planned share issue in connection with VimpelCom’s intention to acquire Wind Telecom, a leading Italian mobile operator.
At its January 16, 2011 meeting, the VimpelCom Supervisory board decided that neither Telenor nor Altimo, another Vimpelcom shareholder, is entitled to pre-emptive rights in connection with the transaction.
Source: VimpelCom
