Russia's Altimo sees Vimpelcom's $6.6 billion deal for Weather closing "in the middle of the first half of 2011" provided that the Russian telecoms group succeeds in debt refinancing talks, Altimo's CEO said. Alexei Reznikovich, the chief executive of Alfa-Group's telecoms investment vehicle and a 44.7 percent Vimpelcom shareholder, said the refinancing issue is currently "the most important condition" for the deal. He said Vimpelcom is currently talking to banks over refinancing the $24 billion debt it will carry if its proposed combination with Orascom Telecom and Italy's Wind — currently owned by Weather — goes through. "As of now everything looks pretty good and I think that we can be quite optimistic that the restructuring of the whole financial package will be successful," Reznikovich told reporters in Altimo's Moscow office. He added that uncertainty surrounding Orascom's Algerian unit Djezzy, which Algeria wants to nationalize, would not prevent the deal going through and said he would welcome an alliance between Vimpelcom and the Algerian government over the disputed asset.
