Cleary Gottlieb represented, in both Moscow and London, Tele2 AB (“Tele2”), Europe’s leading alternative telecom operator, in its sale of 100% of the shares of Closed Joint Stock Company “Corporation Severnaya Korona”, Tele2’s cellular operator in the Irkutsk region of the Russian Federation, to Open Joint Stock Company “Vimpel-Communications” (“Vimpelcom”) for approximately US$232 million. The share purchase agreement was signed and the transaction closed on August 10, 2007.
Simultaneously, Tele2 and Vimpelcom entered into a 10-year national roaming agreement which will enable Tele2 customers seamless roaming across Vimpelcom’s network in Russia.
The structure of this transaction is unique for the Russian market.