Vimpelcom's KarTel

Haven't been following Eastern Europe lately..but we do have some news there as well.

Alex Izosimov has not wasted time in getting back a bigger stake in Kar-Tel. VimpelCom said it has increased its stake in the Kazakh subsidiary to 74.9 percent, VimpelCom bought a 24.9 percent stake from Cyprus-registered Limnotex Developments Ltd. The company previously held 50 percent plus one share in Kar-Tel.

It must be noted that VimpelCom had formerly owned 100% of Kar-Tel, the second largest cellular operator in Kazakhstan, which it acquired in September 2004 for US$350mn plus US$75mn in debt. It later sold a 50% minus one share to Crowell, a Cypriot company owned by shareholders of Kazakhstan's ATF Bank.