State-owned Norwegian telephone company Telenor said Tuesday that it will_______a 25 per cent stake in Russian cellular phone provider Vimpelcom for $160 million

"Russia is a _______ market for mobile telephony and an important part of Telenor's international growth strategy," Tormod Hermansen, president and CEO of Telenor, said in a statement. "Vimpelcom fits well with our existing Russian investments."

The_______would mark Telenor's entrance into the Moscow mobile phone market. It already owns stakes in the St. Petersburg mobile phone company North West GSE, Extel in Kaliningrad and Stavtelesot in Stavropol.

The companies said the $160 million will be_______to develop Vimpelcom's cell phone licenses, fiber optic network, Internet services and other telecommunication_______ "We believe that the infusion of capital into the company at this time will_______the company's competitive position in the Russian cellular market, Vimpelcom's President said in a statement.

Under the terms of the deal, Vimpelcom will hand over a 25 per cent plus one share stake to Telenor.

Vimpelcom said it expects to________from Telenor's experience in penetrating and developing the global telephone market, and the Norwegian provider will in return get access to the Russians' extensive engineering expertise.

Vimpelcom, the first Russian firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1996, posted a net profit of $61 million on turnover of $306 million last year.

The company, however, is suffering as the financial crisis shrinks its customer base.

The company, though, remains a favorite with stock analysts, who ________ it as one of the most transparent and well-managed in Russia.

Vimpelcom had 110,140 subscribers in the Moscow area at the end of 1997, the most recent figures available.

Telenor is a ________ of fixed, mobile, satellite and Internet services and is based in Oslo, Norway. Telenor has 1.5 million cell phone clients in Norway, or 75 percent of the market.

Telenor also operates mobile telephone networks in a number of countries including Norway, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Bangladesh and Ukraine. It came to Russia shortly after the first mobile phone license was granted to the Leningrad region in 1991.

The deal between Telenor and Vimpelcom is subject to the ________ of Vimpelcom shareholders and Russian federal authorities, including the State Anti-Monopoly Committee, the Federal Securities Commission and the Central Bank.

Vimpelcom said it plans to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in late January at which its ________ of directors will recommend the terms of the alliance.

Words you may need:

stake n доля

CEO (Chief Executive Officer) главный исполнительный директор (корпорации, компании)

infusion n вливание

post v делать проводку, заносить в бухгалтерскую книгу

shrink v (зд.) уменьшать, сокращать