Telenor's Arbitration: How Serious is the Damage?

I am inspired by Telenor ASA's (TELN) results yesterday to break my recent silence. How extraordinary it is that the best-performing company in the European sector over the past two years finds itself in the position of having to publish estimates of the results of its own largest source of EBITDA, due to a court injunction over releasing financial information resulting from legal action by a partner (Storm LLC, which holds 43.5% of Kyivstar and is controlled by Altimo).

Up to now the ongoing disagreements have been an area of concern, but without any visible impact on the share price. Altimo seems to have demonstrated powerfully today that throwing stumbling blocks in Telenor's way to cause uncertainty and a lack of visibility is enough to do serious damage after all - in this case a 9% decline in market cap.

TELN 1-yr chart