(Fornebu, Norway, and Tyumen, Russia - 24 March 2010) The Federal Arbitrazh (Business) Court of the West Siberian District, Tyumen, today postponed for the fourth time the hearing of Telenor East Invest AS's appeal of the ruling of the Eighth Arbitrazh Appellate Court in Omsk holding Telenor East Invest AS liable for US$1.73 billion in damages as a result of a claim by Farimex Products Inc., the holder of ADRs equal to 0.002 per cent of OJSC VimpelCom shares.
At the beginning of today's hearing, Farimex brought to the Court's attention that four of the Alfa entities originally named as defendants in the case - CT Mobile, Avenue, Janow and Santel - had been liquidated. The Court set a new hearing date for 16 April 2010, stating that it needed time to review the documents presented by Farimex. None of the four Alfa entities were appealing the Omsk court's ruling of 2 March 2009.
Telenor's appeal of the Omsk court's ruling was originally scheduled to be heard in Tyumen on 26 May 2009, but was initially adjourned until 10 June 2009 on the grounds that third parties in the case had not been duly notified, and then again to 30 September 2009. On 30 September 2009, the Court granted Farimex's motion requesting that the hearing in the case be delayed until a related Farimex case in New York had been heard. That case was dismissed without prejudice on 20 October 2009.
The withdrawal and dismissal with prejudice of the Farimex case in Russia and the withdrawal of all related orders and injunctions, without any cost or loss to Telenor, is a condition to completion of the exchange offer that will combine Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("OJSC VimpelCom") (NYSE:VIP) and Kyivstar in VimpelCom Ltd. launched on 9 February 2010 (the "Exchange Offer") and the related Kyivstar share exchange transaction between Telenor and Altimo. The Exchange Offer in the U.S. will close at 5:00 pm New York City time on 15 April 2010 and the Exchange Offer in Russia will close at 11:59 pm Moscow time on 20 April 2010, unless extended.
