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Vimpelcom ADS down 6% after news about sale of Telenor package

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. The price of Vimpelcom Ltd. American Depositary shares (ADS) at the opening of trading on the NASDAQ OTC trading platform fell by 6.15% to $3.66 per share (as of 16:35 MSK).

On Friday, September 9, the company's shares fell 6.8%, to $3.9 per share.

Earlier Norway’s Telenor said it commenced sale of 24.5% in VimpelCom Ltd. out of its 33% stake.

Currently Telenor owns approximately 580 million ADSs (American Depository Shares), or 33% of VimpelCom’s total outstanding common shares. "Telenor ASA today announced that it has commenced a public offering in the United States of 142,500,000 of its VimpelCom Ltd. ADSs," the company said in a press release on Monday. The price at which Telenor will sell the ADSs has not yet been determined.

"Before pricing of the ADS offering, Telenor may also launch a 3-year bond exchangeable into VimpelCom ADSs in an aggregate principal amount of up to $1 bln with an exchange premium which could be up to 35%," the report said.

Telenor announced plans to divest all its shares in VimpelCom to fully focus on creating value in core operations on 5 October 2015. The company then said that VimpelCom had gradually contributed less to its value while the market value of VimpelCom shares represented around 8% of Telenor’s market capitalization.

Telenor became a shareholder in Russia’s VimpelCom in the late 1990s. After the unification of VimpelCom with Ukraine’s Kyivstar Telenor received a stake in VimpelCom Ltd. Currently Telenor has a 33% stake and 43% of votes in VimpelCom.

VimpelCom is an international telecommunication company owned by Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne (47.9% of voting shares), Telenor (43%) and minority shareholders (9.1%). It provides services under the Beeline, Kyivstar, Djuice, Wind, Infostrada, Mobilink, Leo, Banglalink and Telecel brands.