Executive Vice President Jan Edvard Thygesen said in a statement that Telenor and Altimo (the telecom arm of Russia's Alfa Group), both core shareholders of VimpelCom and Kyivstar, would not discuss the potential merger until certain corporate governance issues had been resolved.
VimpelCom, Russia's second largest cell phone operator, announced earlier Monday that it had sent an offer to Telenor and Altimo to buy a 100% stake in Kyivstar GSM with ordinary shares for $5 billion, and assume the company's liabilities.
Thygesen said Telenor regretted that this confidential information had been leaked to the press. Telenor is prepared to work constructively with Altimo and all other shareholders, but insists that corporate governance be restored and business ethics and contractual obligations adhered to, he said.
The Norwegian telecom giant holds a 56.5% controlling stake in Kyivstar, while Alfa Group owns 43.5%.
Kyivstar is Ukraine's leading cell phone operator with a subscriber base of about 14.4 million clients as of January 31, 2006.
The VimpelCom group of companies includes cell phone operators in Russia, Kazakhstan and, following the recent acquisitions, Ukraine, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. VimpelCom is licensed to provide mobile phone operations to a region home to 232 million people. The company serves 78 regions of Russia (136.5 million people or 94% of Russia's population) and the entire territory of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Telenor holds a 26.6% stake in VimpelCom, while Altimo, a leading private equity group in international mobile telecommunications markets, previously named Alfa Telecom, owns 32.9%.
