Turkcell has made a binding offer for TeliaSonera’s 58.55% stake in their Eurasian wireless joint venture, Fintur, and its 24% stake in Kazakhstan mobile operator Kcell.
Turkcell (IST:TCELL) has made a binding offer for TeliaSonera’s (STO:TLSN) 58.55% stake in their Eurasian wireless joint venture, Fintur, and its 24% stake in Kazakhstan mobile operator Kcell.
Announcing its plans in a stock exchange filing, the Turkish mobile operator provided no further details.
Last November Turkcell made an initial non-binding offer for Fintur, in which it owns the remaining 41.45% stake, again without elaborating.
TeliaSonera, which is Turkcell’s largest shareholder with a 38% stake, announced in mid-September that it would exit its seven Eurasian markets, four of which – Azerbaijan (Azercell), Georgia (Geocell), Kazakhstan (Kcell), and Moldova (Moldcell) – are held through Fintur. The Swedish telco has an additional 24% direct stake in Kcell.
A day after this announcement, Turkcell initiated a process to hire a strategic and financial adviser to examine a Fintur takeover. Citigroup and HSBC are reportedly advising the Istanbul-based operator on the matter.
A TeliaSonera spokesperson has previously said several parties are interested in the company’s Fintur stake, including Turkcell.
Last month, the Swedish telco said its seven Eurasian businesses will be reported as held-for-sale and discontinued operations in its full year report for 2015.
TeliaSonera CEO Johan Dennelind (pictured) said at the time that the process to exit Eurasia continues, noting that significant progress was made last December when it agreed to sell its 60.45% stake in Ncell in Nepal to Axiata for US$1.03bn. The telco also agreed to dissolve its economic interest in an additional 20% stake, held locally by Niraj Shrestha, for some US$48m.