The Algerian government, which wanted to buy Djezzy, ordered Orascom to pay more than $800 million in back taxes and banned it from transferring money abroad, penalties that Orascom has contested. The Egyptian company has said it could be in international arbitration by the second quarter of this year unless it can resolve the dispute. VimpelCom, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is Russia's second-largest mobile operator and was formed from the consolidation of billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group and Telenor's holdings in Russian and Ukrainian mobile phone operators. (Bloomberg, MT)