Telenor and Alfa in Telecom Venture

Two large investors in the mobile phone industry in the former Soviet Union and former communist countries in Southeast Asia have consolidated their assets into a single sprawling company that is poised to become one of the largest emerging-market telecommunications operators.

While well positioned in these markets, the company, VimpelCom, is also deeply entangled in their legal and political risks, having emerged as a settlement of a long-running suit in Russia. The Norwegian company Telenor and the telecommunications arm of the Russian financial and industrial conglomerate Alfa both held significant stakes in Russian and Ukrainian cellphone firms and had been sparring over matters of corporate governance. To settle their dispute, the companies agreed to combine their assets into the new company. Its shares are scheduled to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.