The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service is pushing for an out-of-court settlement between the shareholders of VimpelCom, who are fighting for control of Russia's No.3 mobile operator, Interfax quoted the regulator as saying Wednesday.
Norway's Telenor raised its stake in VimpelCom in February, triggering a new wave of hostilities with co-owner Altimo and prompting VimpelCom to defer dividend payments.
"We are not giving up hope to settle the conflict … in a peaceful way, by means of talks between the companies," Igor Artemyev, head of the service, was quoted as saying. "And we have instructions from the government commission on foreign investments to contribute in every possible way to negotiations between the companies in order to settle this outside the court."
(Reuters)