'We still own Telecel Zimbabwe,' says VimpelCom

VimpelCom Limited says it still owns a majority stake in Telecel Zimbabwe Limited, as negotiations with the government over the 60 percent by out continue.

Last year, VimpelCom was pressured by president Robert Mugabe's administration to sell its stake in the mobile operator to Zarnet after its offers to a variety of foreign and local investors was blocked on the basis that previous sales had not yielded any capital gains tax for the cash-strapped government.

Telecel is Zimbabwe's smallest mobile telephone operator with over 2,4 million subscribers.