2024-07-26T14:08:00+03:00 Economy 2024-09-15T04:13:13+03:00

Ukrainian news

Antimonopoly Committee assures that russian oligarch Fridman will not receive money from sale of Lifecell

Antimonopoly Committee assures that russian oligarch Fridman will not receive money from sale of Lifecell

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) assures that the funds received by the Turkcell company (Turkey) from the sale of the Lifecell group to the French billionaire Xavier Niel will in no case be paid to the russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.

This is stated in the report of the committee, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

According to the report, in the process of considering the cases in the framework of the purchase by DVL Telecom, which is part of Niel's investment company NJJ Capital, of the Ukrainian assets of Turkcell, the AMCU established:

- the Turkcell company does not have an ultimate beneficial owner, its shareholders are not connected by control relations and act independently of each other in relation to the company's economic activities;

- management control over Turkcell is carried out by a Turkish company controlled by the Welfare Fund of the Republic of Turkey;

- the share of Friedman's indirect ownership of shares in Turkcell (through IMTIS Holdings, which is controlled by Letterone) is about 7%, which does not ensure that the sanctioned person has a decisive influence on Turkcell's economic activity. However, IMTIS Holdings is not a party to the proposed concentrations;

- Turkcell dividends transferred to IMTIS Holdings will not be directly or indirectly transferred to Fridman, as he has no involvement in the business and no funds can come to him;

- the funds that Turkcell will receive from the sale of the Lifecell group will in no case be paid to Fridman;

- Fridman and other sanctioned persons were removed from the management/business processes of the Letterone company;

- actions in the form of implementation of declared concentrations are not prohibited according to the Law "On Sanctions".

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the AMCU allowed the company of French billionaire Niel to buy lifecell.

On April 16, the Court of Appeal of Kyiv canceled the arrest of 19.8% of the corporate rights of the mobile operator lifecell.

Niel's NJJ Capital plans to merge the national operator of fixed communications and digital services, Datagrup-Volia (Kyiv) and lifecell.

Earlier, the AMCU allowed DVL Telecom, which is part of Niel's NJJ Capital, to buy Datagrup-Volia.

In January, Niel said that NJJ Capital agreed to pay USD 500 million for the Ukrainian units of the Turkcell company, in particular, for the lifecell company.

In October, the court arrested all corporate rights in Ukraine belonging to sanctioned russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and Andrey Kosogov.

In particular, the court arrested 47.85% of the shares of PrJSC Kyivstar and 19.8% of the authorized capital of the mobile operator lifecell.