Alfa Group - Dispute With TeliaSonera

Dispute With TeliaSonera

Alfa Group and Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera jointly own the Turkish mobile operator Turkcell, and the Russian mobile operator MegaFon.

In Turkey, TeliaSonera has acquired 47% of the shares in Turkcell Holding, which controlled 51% of Turkcell. Telia's partner was the Turkish company Cukurova. TeliaSonera and Cukurova agreed on a binding shareholders' agreement in 2005, depriving Cukurova from the right to sell Turkcell shares without the prior consent of TeliaSonera, and with the latter company's right of first priority to buy eventual shares from Cukurova. However, Cukurova sold their shares to Alfa Group that same year. Through this US$3.5 bn purchase, Alfa Group exercised control of Turkcell's board of directors already from First quarter, 2006. In January, 2007, a court of appeal in Geneva, Switzerland, ruled that Cukurova had violate the shareholder's agreement by selling their shares on to the Alfa Group. The court demanded Cukurova to see to it that the shares be transferred back and re-sold to TeliaSonera. A court of appeal in Vienna, Austria confirmed this ruling on 7 March 2008, and repeated the demand to enter into negotiations with Alfa Group over at transfer of the shares, but with no practical results. On 7 August 2009 the International Chamber of Commerce issued an award stating that Cukurova must deliver all the remaining shares in Turkcell Holding to TeliaSonera.