Ukraine confirms approval of Vimpelcom-Kyivstar transaction

VimpelCom announced that the Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee has confirmed its prior approval of the transaction to combine VimpelCom and Kyivstar GSM under the new company VimpelCom Ltd. This approval will allow VimpelCom to integrate its operations in Ukraine. On 5 October 2009, Altimo and Telenor decided to combine their ownership in VimpelCom and Kyivstar under a new company, VimpelCom Ltd. On 9 February, VimpelCom launched the exchange offer which received overwhelming support from the market with approximately 97 percent of VimpelCom common shares being exchanged in the transaction. On 21 April, the exchange offer was completed. However, on 22 April the Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee decided to suspend their approval of the transaction in order to investigate further.