MOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - Russian bailiffs said on Tuesday they would not put up for sale Telenor's stake in mobile firm Vimpelcom to cover a $1.7 billion fine before a Siberian court hears an appeal by the Norwegian firm.
"We are having an appeal hearing tomorrow and certainly before a decision is made we can't take any further steps," Sergei Sazanov, First Deputy Director of the Federal Bailiff Service, told a news conference.
Natalya Selivanova, a spokeswoman for the bailiff service, also said that the shares would not be put up for sale if the court in Tyumen fails to take a decision on Wednesday. "We anyway need a court decision," she said.
The court in Tyumen is due to resume hearing the appeal which was brought by Telenor after another Siberian court ruled that it must pay damages to Vimpelcom for allegedly holding back its business in Ukraine.
As the Norwegian company has refused to pay the fine the Russian bailiff service has prepared for the sale of Telenor's Vimpelcom stake. Telenor's motion for a stay of enforcement was last week denied by a Moscow court.
On Monday the bailiff service said that the stake would be handed over shortly to be auctioned off on the stock market, ratcheting up pressure on the Norwegian company.
Sazanov said the shares were unlikely to be put up for sale in one lot although the final decision had yet to be taken. He said that the price would be set based on a three-day average stock market price for Vimpelcom shares.
Telenor sees the case as part of its protracted dispute with Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group. The latter has denied any link to Farimex Products, a tiny Vimpelcom shareholder behind the suit. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Greg Mahlich)