MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd., a Bermuda-based mutual fund that owns Russian telecommunications assets, yesterday denied an Interfax report it plans to invest in OAO VimpelCom.IPOC denied the report in a one-sentence statement e-mailed to news agencies yesterday. Interfax yesterday said IPOC planed to invest as much as $1.5 billion in shares of VimpelCom and other Russian telecommunications assets, citing the fund director Mads Braemer-Jensen.

IPOC is in a legal battle with Alfa Group, Vimpelcom's largest shareholder, for a 25.1 percent stake in OAO MegaFon, Russia's third-largest mobile phone company.