VimpelCom Will Buy Wind Telecom

The Supervisory Board of VimpelCom Ltd. approved the purchase of Wind Telecom S.p.A (formerly Weather Investments) by majority vote, despite the active opposition of its Scandinavian shareholders. 

The merger of VimpelCom and Wind Telecom will create the world's sixth-largest telecommunications company providing mobile services in 19 countries with a population of 838 million people and the number of subscribers 173 million. The deal is scheduled for the II half of 2011.


Under the agreement, after completion of the transaction VimpelCom will own a 51.7% stake in the Egyptian telecom operator Orascom Telecom Holding SAE and 100% of Italian Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. For this transaction VimpelCom Ltd (a company of Russian origin) will pay $1.5 billion cash and shares.