MTS, the top mobile carrier in Russia, had announced it had entered into a compromise agreement for a lawsuit over a disputed 51% stake purchased in Bitel, the Kyrgyzstan telecommunications firm back in 2005. WIth the the settlement, the company would be adding a US$320 million gain just for the second quarter of this year.
MTS had previously written off that amount after its failure to obtain operational control over the former Soviet Republic's biggest mobile operator back in 2006. The case stemmed from a dispute over the ownership of the company and the subsequent legality of the purchase transaction later on undertaken.
Bitel was sold to Sky Mobile, a unit of Vimpelcom, a rival of MTS. Vimpelcom is partly owned by Altimo, the investment firm of Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman. Fridman is one of the respondents in the case filed by MTS.
Last Tuesday, MTS said that all the legal proceedings have been waived and in exchange the company would be receiving US$150 million from one of the parties of the case. No further details were provided in the announcement.
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