Telenor Gets Majority Stakes in VimpelCom, Drops Arbitration Claims

Telenor Group, in a latest development, has bought 234,000,000 VimpelCom preferred shares from Weather Investments for US$374,400,000, to increase its voting rights at VimpelCom from 25.01 percent to 36.36 percent and to become majority stake holder in VimpelCom, said a statement issued by the Telenor Group. Just to recall, Mr. Naguib Sawiris and his family last year bought 29.63 percent stakes in VimpelCom through Weather Investments in exchange of Orascom Telecom. Weather’s shares in VimpelCom, after this transaction, will come down to 18.28 percent. In connection with this new buyout of shares, Telenor has withdrawn all its claims against Altimo Holdings & Investments Ltd., Altimo Cooperatief...

Read more »

Electricity projects on top of Ahmadinejad’s agenda

“Pakistan attaches high priority to its relations with Iran,” said Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar, add-ing that the three projects would help ease energy crisis. - File photo ISLAMABAD: Talks between Pakistan and Iran during the forthcoming visit of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will mainly focus on cooperation in energy sector. “Pakistan and Iran have agreed to complete at fast pace projects for importing electricity to enhance bilateral relations in the field of trade, energy and economy,” Iranian Ambassador Alireza Highighlian told Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar here on Tuesday. At present three electricity import projects are under way, the first of them is of 35MW which will be enhanced later to...

Read more »

Ahmadinejad leaves Tehran for Islamabad’s trilateral meeting

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has departed for Pakistan to take part in a tripartite summit on regional cooperation and developments. The two-day Islamabad summit will open on Friday with the participation of the Iranian president and his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari. We hope that the Islamabad meeting would take bigger steps toward the promotion of regional cooperation and the restoration of peace and stability in the region, President Ahmadinejad told reporters before departure on Thursday. He said that all solutions put forward by extra-regional countries failed to contribute to the restoration of stability in the region. Iran’s chief...

Read more »