The court granted Farimex's lawyers an additional three months to learn more about a lawsuit Telenor has launched in the United States to investigate links between Farimex and Alfa Group, fellow VimpelCom shareholders.
Telenor claimed that Farimex's latest request was just a ploy to drag out the proceedings in Siberia, as the plaintiff has long been aware of the U.S. case.
"That was a lawsuit we launched last summer, which is no news to Farimex," Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said. "That they would need another three months to get acquainted with the suit is purely ridiculous." He added that according to Telenor's lawyers, Wednesday's ruling is illegal, as a Russian cassation court may not adjourn an appeals hearing for more than a month.
But Farimex lawyer Dmitry Cherny said late Wednesday that Telenor had filed an ammended claim on May 28 and that they needed to make sure they weren't going against a U.S. court order.
The postponement comes at an auspicious time for Telenor, as the telecom faces an increasing possibility that its VimpelCom stake could be sold this summer.
The Federal Court Marshals Service said Tuesday that it was prepared to sell Telenor's 29.9 percent stake in VimpelCom if a lower court ruling was upheld. An Omsk court ordered in March that the stake be sold to cover the $1.7 million fine against Telenor.
The service refused to comment further on the matter Wednesday.
While the Telenor-Farimex proceedings will likely continue for several months, there's a chance that the court marshal could start selling the shares "without any notice," VTB wrote in a research note. "In our view, Telenor's position in the dispute continues to weaken, and we see an increasing chance of the Norwegian holding losing its stake in VimpelCom — partially or in full," the bank said.
For Telenor, the postponement represents yet another obstacle in its battle to get to the Moscow Supreme Court. There the telecom believes that it has a better chance of being vindicated, despite having a motion rejected by the Moscow Arbitration Court there June 3.
"The reason the other party is so keen on keeping this court case alive in Siberia is because they know the minute we end up in the supreme court in Moscow they have a really bad case," Melgaard said.
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