Kyivstar to merge with VimpelCom

Telenor said this morning in a press release that it and Altimo, the telecom arm of Alfa Group, have agreed to combine their assets in VimpelCom and Kyivstar into VimpelCom Ltd. The merged company will have exposure to Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries, in addition to Georgia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. VimpelCom Ltd will be headquartered in the Netherlands and listed on the NYSE. As part of the deal, both sides have agreed to suspend all ongoing legal proceedings and take action to withdraw or settle them prior to completion of the transaction; the governance structure of the new company was designed to reduce the potential for new shareholder disputes. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2010. The combined revenues of the two companies in 2008 were USD 12.6 bln and combined EBITDA was USD 6.3 bln; the two companies had a subscriber base of 85 million at yearend 2008.