Russian company Altimo has agreed to acquire 123.6 million preferred shares in Vimpelcom Ltd from Bertofan Investment, Reuters reports. This raises Altimo's voting stake in the Russian operator from 41.9 percent to 47.9 percent. The additional shares were valued at USD 217.54 million, and the deal should be completed within 60 days. This makes Altimo the largest shareholder in Vimpelcom, ahead of Telenor with a 43 percent stake. Altimo said it hopes this will "remove the question of foreign shareholder control in Vimpelcom and will be a key in solving the conflict between (Russia's regulator) and Telenor". Shareholder actions at Vimpelcom, including dividend payments, have been suspended for several months since the Russian regulator launched an investigation into Telenor's acquisition of a larger stake in the company, claiming this may violate foreign investment laws in Russia. However, a Telenor spokesman told Reuters that the Altimo deal "is not great news". It had earlier proposed that it and Altimo split the shares held by Bertofan so that each company had an equal stake in Vimpelcom. Telenor said it was unclear now how to move forward on its proposal.
