Alfa continues to boycott Kyivstar shareholders meetings

"Alfa has once again chosen to boycott legitimate Kyivstar shareholders meetings despite the fact that there are no court orders or any other legal obstacles preventing Alfa from attending such meetings," said Jan Edvard Thygesen, Executive Vice President and head of Telenor's operations in Central and Eastern Europe. "Alfa's deliberate non-attendance is also a clear violation of the August 1 award of the arbitration tribunal, which ordered Alfa to attend Kyivstar Board and shareholders meetings. Although not surprising, Alfa's actions are damaging to Kyivstar and its corporate governance and again clearly show that Alfa has no respect for the standards and ethics of the international business community. We are in the process of seeking to have the arbitration award confirmed and intend to begin enforcing it against Alfa as soon as possible. We will bring this latest violation to the attention of the appropriate authorities."

Among other things, in its award, the arbitration tribunal upheld the validity of the Kyivstar Shareholders Agreement and ordered Storm and its Alfa affiliates to dispose of their shares in Turkcell and Ukrainian High Technologies, which compete with Kyivstar in Ukraine, or sell their Kyivstar shares. The arbitration proceeding was conducted under the UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) rules, which also apply in Ukraine. The arbitration award was unanimous, which means that the arbitrator appointed by Alfa approved the award.

The Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGMS) number 1 was called to amend the Kyivstar Charter and to elect a new Board. The second EGMS was called to appoint an external auditor.

Press contact:
Dag Melgaard, Vice President, Group Communications
Telenor ASA
tel: +47901 92000