If the shareholders' agreement is annulled, Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said it would open up a "whole new scenario which we will need time to reconsider". Shares in Telenor were down 1.8 percent in Oslo, roughly in line with the market, as some investors said that Telenor might be better off out of the long-running corporate battle. "I cannot see anything other than that Telenor will benefit from seeing this (Vimpelcom) as a financial investment and not a strategic asset," said Tore Toenseth, an analyst at Argo Securities. Telenor and Vimpelcom are broadly similar in size in terms of subscriber numbers and occupy the fifth and sixth positions on the list of world's biggest mobile operators. The deal with Wind saw Telenor's stake in Vimpelcom fall to 25.1 percent, while Altimo has 31 percent. To trigger an annulment of the shareholder agreement, Altimo said it would sell just enough shares to make its stake drop below 25 percent.