Telenor has seen its shares in Russian mobile operator VimpelCom arrested by Russian authorities after another round in its court battle with Vimpelcom's other major shareholder Alfa. A US federal court in New York has held four Alfa Group companies (Altimo, Alpren, Hardlake and Storm) in contempt for the second time for their failure to comply with the court's orders confirming an earlier arbitration award in Telenor's favour, over management control of Ukraine operator Kyivstar, in which Alfa also holds a stake. A Russian bailiff working with Farimex Product, another Vimpelcom shareholder which Telenor accuses of links to Alfa, served an arrest order on the National Registry Company, VimpelCom's Moscow share registrar. Telenor suspects the arrest order was served in retaliation for the court's decision in New York, and that the arrest of the VimpelCom shares is intended to prevent the enforcement of the decision. Telenor said that if its 29.9 percent voting stake in VimpelCom is stolen, the company would regard this as a criminal act against Telenor and its shareholders. The New York court found that none of the four Alfa companies had complied with its November 2008 order to deposit Kyivstar shares with the court. Alfa was ordered to pay fines of USD 100,000 per day, beginning on 12 March, until it complies with the order, with the amount doubling every 30 days thereafter. The court ordered the Alfa companies to secure the dismissal of pending litigation by the company EC Venture in Ukraine by 23 March. The Alfa holding company Storm was also ordered to sell its Kyivstar shares by the same date, unless within that period, Alfa has sold an over 5 percent stake in the Kyivstar parent companies Turkcell and Ukrainian High Technologies. Altimo said in a statement that it has tried to comply with the court rulings, but will appeal against those orders that are impossible to fulfill, notably the actions in the Ukraine courts. Altimo accused Telenor of pursuing the court action in order to take over the Russian company's shares in Kyivstar.
