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Kiev Backs Telecoms Merger

KIEV — Telenor and Altimo won final approval Tuesday from the Ukrainian government to merge their local operations into a new mobile operator, VimpelCom.

Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee said on its web site that it made the decision on the merger following “in-depth research” of the telecommunications market.

Altimo, controlled by Alfa Group, and Telenor, the biggest Norwegian phone company, first won the committee’s approval in March to merge Kiev-based Kyivstar, Ukrainski Radiosystemy and Golden Telecom into VimpelCom. The committee said in April that it would review its decision and asked the firms not to proceed.

(Bloomberg)


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