The junction will be in effect until November 18, 2005. IPOC, which also claims ownership of the stake, said it is applying to the Privy Council in London to extend the junction beyond that date.
IPOC is challenging the deal, under which 25.1% of MegaFon shares were transferred from LV Finance to Alfa Group through a complex scheme of more than a dozen companies, including Alfa's offshore firms.
IPOC said it signed two option contracts with LV Finance in April and December 2001 on the purchase of a 100% stake in TMI, which owns 25.1% of MegaFon shares through CT-Mobile.
But in August 2003 Alfa Group claimed the ownership of all LV Finance assets, including CT-Mobile.
In August 2004, the Geneva Arbitration Tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce adjudged that IPOC was the owner of the disputed stake in the Russian mobile operator and Alfa Group was a non-bona fide purchaser of MegaFon shares. The court's order obliged LV Finance to pay IPOC more than $2 million in judicial expenses.
But the dispute over MegaFon's stake is not over.
MegaFon's shareholders are the Finnish-Swedish TeliaSonera (35.6%), Telecominvest (31.3%), CT-Mobile (25.1%), IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd. (6.5%) and West Link Ltd. (1.5%).
