News

In early October, Norway's Telenor and Russia's Alfa group announced a merger of their holdings in VimpelCom in Russia and Kyivstar in Ukraine, following a 5 year corporate battle involving allegations of corruption and bribery and a court case which led to the seizure of many of Telenor’s assets in Russia



The USD23 billion merger was popular with investors, causing share prices to jump after the announcement.



This week, Alfa Group has announced another merger with Nordic telco whom it has done battle with in recent year - TeliaSonera.



Alfa Group and TeliaSonera of Sweden will bring together their telecoms operations though Megafon in Russia and Turkcell in Turkey and create a joint venture, a new company worth more than USD30 billion. The company is intended to be listed in New York, to run on a 50-50 basis and will have a controlling stake in both Megafon and Turkcell.



The deal may face opposition from Megafon’s third shareholder, the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.