Report: Telenor in talks to sell stake in Russia’s VimpelCom owner

MOSCOW, Apr 1 (PRIME) -- Telenor, the Nordic region’s largest phone company, is holding talks with possible bidders for its U.S. $2.5 billion stake in VimpelCom Ltd., the sole owner of Russian mobile operator VimpelCom, and is targeting countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia for future growth, Bloomberg reported Friday.

“We are in contact with potential buyers,” Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke said, declining to name any suitors. “We are not dumping our shareholding. We want a fair price.”

The company, which has not appointed financial advisers, is seeking to sell the stake soon, Brekke said, without elaborating. As it pulls back from VimpelCom Ltd., a carrier that has operations in Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Telenor is open to acquiring assets in growth markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, he said.

Selling the stake, a move that Telenor has flagged since last year, would help the Nordic phone company unload an asset that has been hurt by Russia’s economic slump. It would also give the carrier funds to expand its operations in emerging markets in Asia.

VimpelCom Ltd., which has more than 200 million customers, counts Telenor as its second largest shareholder after LetterOne Holdings, which owns a 56% stake. Telenor’s 33% stake is valued at $2.5 billion based on the stock’s latest close.

The lack of control is partly why Telenor wants to sell out.

“We don’t want to be sitting there as a financial shareholder without any influence on the real operations,” Brekke said. “We’re better off redeploying those assets in markets where we can add value and where we also see growth.”

VimpelCom Ltd. has also been embroiled in a corruption investigation in Uzbekistan. In February, the company agreed to pay a near-record $795 million to settle U.S. and Dutch claims that it bribed officials to win business in the former Soviet republic.

The scandal led Norway’s government to fire Telenor’s then chairman and a former CEO who was advising the VimpelCom Ltd. board left the company because of the investigation. Chief Financial Officer Richard Olav Aa and General Counsel Pal Wien Espenwere were also relieved of their duties until there’s greater clarity on the corruption probe, Telenor said in November 2015.

On Thursday, VimpelCom filed regulatory documents for the sale of as much as 89% of its stock by the company’s biggest investors.

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