OSLO Norway AP The Norwegian state telephone company Telenor ASA on Tuesday announced that it was buying a 25-percent stake in Russia's largest cellular telephone provider Vimpel Communications for dlrs 160 million. Vimpel which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange has Russian government licenses to provide mobile telephone coverage to areas inhabited by 100 million people. According to a news release from Telenor Vimpel plans to use the extra stock capital to help expand its GSM fiber-optic and Internet services. Telenor said the company has about half the cellular phone market in Moscow. ``The investment in Vimpel is in keeping with our strategic ambitions in Russia'' Tormod Hermansen head of Telenor. The deal is contingent on approval by 75 percent of Vimpel's shareholders and the Russian government. The sale could be completed by June 1. Vimpel reported an operating profit of dlrs 61 million last year on a turnover of dlrs 306 million. dm-jh APW19981201.1038.txt.body.html APW19981201.0162.txt.body.html