Following today’s announcement from the Zurich Arbitration Tribunal, a spokesman for IPOC said:

"The Zurich Ad Hoc Tribunal has issued a partial award dated 19 October 2004. No final decisions have been made at this stage as to IPOC’s right to the MegaFon stake or the legality of Alfa’s purchase of the stake.

“The Zurich Tribunal has requested further briefings and we expect there will be additional evidentiary hearings.

“When the new hearings are scheduled IPOC intends to present further detailed evidence to prove that LV Finance and Alfa Group knowingly struck a deal to sell the same stake twice. IPOC is also pursuing its remedies in other forums.

“We have said from the outset of our legal actions that the integrity of contracts for investment in Russia is at stake. The principle we are seeking to uphold is a simple one - no matter where you are in the world you can't sell the same stake twice."

The Zurich Tribunal is considering the first of IPOC’s two Option Agreements with LV Finance to purchase the MegaFon stake. The ICC in Geneva has already ruled on the second Option Agreement, finding that IPOC is the rightful owner of the stake and that Alfa were not “bona fide purchasers” of the stake.

Comments

1. IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd. is an investor operating worldwide and investing in high technologies, telecommunications, media- and bio- technologies on emerging markets. The investment manager of the Fund is IPOC Capital Partners Ltd.

2. IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd. is a longstanding investor in MegaFon and currently already holds a 6.5% stake in the company in addition to the disputed 25.1% stake. IPOC’s primary beneficial owner is Jeffrey Galmond, a Danish lawyer and longstanding investor in the Russian telecoms sector.

3. LV Finance signed two option agreements in April and December 2001 with IPOC to sell to IPOC 100% of Transcontinental Mobile Investment Limited (TMI), itself the sole owner of CT Mobile (CTM), which holds 25.1% of MegaFon, the third largest Russian mobile operator.

4. A Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal, initiated by IPOC to enforce the MegaFon shareholders agreement, has also ruled that no one connected to Alfa Group or Vimplecom should be nominated, voted on to, or remain on, the MegaFon Board of Directors.

5. Alfa Group sought to have the Moscow Arbitazh Court declare the MegaFon shareholders agreement declared null and void on the grounds that its provisions in Swedish Law conflicted with Russian Joint Stock Law. The Moscow Court dismissed the case.

6. For more information on IPOC, go to www.ipocfund.com

© MForum.ru based on Media Strategy (PR Agency) information