Russia's Commission for Foreign Investment has rejected a deal between the domestic telecoms firm Altimo and Nordic telecoms giant TeliaSonera to merge their interests in the Russian leading mobile operator MegaFon and Turkey's Turkcell, the anti-trust watchdog said late on Tuesday.
In November 2009, TeliaSonera and Altimo, the telecoms arm of Alfa-Group financial and industrial holding company owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, signed a deal to merge their stakes in MegaFon, one of Russia's top three mobile firms where Altimo holds 25.1% and TeliaSonera 43.8%, and Turkey's largest cell phone company Turkcell in which they own 4.99% and 37% respectively.
"We studied the MegaFon deal for a long time, in particular, TeliaSonera's request for transformations inside the group. These transformations would have resulted in new offshore companies, to which MegaFon's shares would have been transferred. This deal was disapproved by the commission," said Igor Artemyev, head of the Anti-Monopoly Service and commission member.
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, Megafon's third largest shareholder, earlier instituted legal proceedings to block the merger, claiming the deal violated Russia's rules on foreign investment.
MOSCOW, December 29 (RIA Novosti)
