Russia's Alfa dreams of Turkcell ownership
Turkcell, Turkey's biggest mobile phone company, may witness some changes in its shareholding structure. Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, which owns 13.22 percent of Turkcell, is optimistic about gaining control of Turkey's most valuable company with a market value of $20 billion. Alfa expects a court case with its Turkish partner Çukurova Holding to end in its favor by the end of April and gain control of Turkcell, said Kirill Babayev, vice president of Altimo, Alfa's telecommunications unit. Last year, Alfa argued that Çukurova broke a loan agreement between the companies and must surrender the 13.8 percent of Turkcell shares it had put up as collateral. Alfa's victory in court would mean gaining control of Turkcell. “We will no more be just finance investors, but will start taking steps toward strategic investments. Altimo is within a restructuring process and Turkcell is crucial for the company, Babayev said.
Possible merger with VimpelCom:
Turkcell will be of great importance in the upcoming period for Altimo, which aims to have a voice in Europe, according to Babaev, who was not inclined to divulge details on the issue. However, it is said that Alfa may create a giant operator by joining Turkcell with Russian GSM operator VimpelCom. Russian Altimo, partner of Sweden's TeliaSonera AB at Megafon, Russia's third-largest cellular operator, announced last week that it would sell its shares at Megafon as well as its shares in Ukraine, and purchase TeliaSonera's 37.09 percent shares in Turkcell. Following the share exchange, TeliaSonera, which has 33.4 percent shares of Megafon, will have 58.5 percent shares at Russia's third-largest operator. This share exchange has been deemed as an important step of Altimo in gaining the control of Turkcell. “It is true that we plan to leave our 25.1 percent shares in Megafon and purchase 37.09 percent shares in Turkcell. These are the current options for us; however, there are some issues that make us think,” said Babaev, drawing attention to the importance of the lawsuit expected to end in April
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