US District Court Rejects Telenor’s Claims on Altimo’s purchase of Vimpelcom shares

On 25 March, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York threw out at the preliminary stage three of the five substantive counts that Telenor brought against Altimo and its affiliates on the ground that these claims did not state proper claims under US law.

In June 2007, Telenor brought an action against Altimo in the federal court in New York, claiming that Altimo had violated US securities laws when it bought 9.5% of VimpelCom shares between in 2006-2007. On Monday, the Court dismissed the most serious of these claims — that Altimo had engaged in insider trading — saying that Telenor's "bare" assertions do "not suffice" and that nowhere did Telenor allege that the Altimo nominees on the VimpelCom board revealed to anyone the information they had. The Court also rejected Telenor's claim that Altimo intended to take VimpelCom private.

The remaining two counts were left for closer scrutiny because Telenor has pled some facts that still remain to be tested. Notably, in relation to Telenor’s claim that Altimo conducted an "unconventional tender offer", The Judge said: “Telenor has not proved the existence” of such an offer.

“We are satisfied with the Judge’s fair decision to reject three groundless claims Telenor had filed. After this legal victory, we are eager to proceed with vigorously defending our legal position against Telenor's destructive effort improperly to pressure Altimo and to cause some questionable PR attention. The Court confirmed that the facts support our stance”, Kirill Babaev, Vice President of Altimo, said.