Court Gets Telenor Release Accounts Unaudited
Norway’s Telenor had to publish its yearly accounts unaudited after a Ukrainian court prohibited the Kyivstar operator to submit financial data to the shareholders, including Telenor. Stocks of the Norwegian telecommunications holding dropped 9.8 percent after the unaudited data was posted.
Releasing accounts for 2006, Telenor noted that the results for the forth quarter are based on estimates. The Norwegian company was unable to audit data for Kyivstar where it holds 56.5 percent. Altimo, a subsidiary, of Russian Alfa Group, owns the rest of the stock.
Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest cell operator with 22.1 million subscribers. The company’s capitalization is estimated at $8 billion.
Last December Kyiv Economic Court upheld a suit from Storm, Altimo’s subsidiary, to invalidate Kyivstar’s audited accounts since the procedure had not been endorsed by the board of directions. The court sanctioned to bar Telenor from any auditing of Kyivstar’s yearly results.
Altimo and Telenor have been at court since August 2005 when Storm sued the Norwegian holding in an attempt to secure equal rights on Kyivstar’s board.
Telenor’s shares lost 9.8 percent after the financial data was posted. The company, however, denies any relation between the release and the slump.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 16, 2007
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