Turkcell has made a non-binding offer for TeliaSonera’s 58.55% stake in their Eurasian wireless joint venture Fintur, according to CEO Kaan Terzioglu. The Turkish cellco intends to make another offer for the majority stake, which has been valued at some US$430m, once due diligence is complete.
Turkcell (IST:TCELL) has made a non-binding offer for TeliaSonera’s (STO:TLSN) 58.55% stake in their Eurasian wireless joint venture Fintur and is currently carrying out due diligence, according to CEO Kaan Terzioglu.
Once due diligence is complete, Turkey’s largest mobile operator intends to make another offer for Fintur. Its 41.45% stake has been valued at some US$430m, Bloomberg cited Terzioglu saying. He didn’t provide further details.
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.
A day after the announcement, Turkcell initiated a process to hire a strategic and financial adviser to examine a Fintur takeover. Citigroup and HSBC are reportedly now advising the Istanbul-based operator on the matter.
A TeliaSonera spokesperson was cited saying that several parties are interested in its Fintur stake, including Turkcell.
TeliaSonera announced last month that its seven Eurasian businesses will be reported as held-for-sale and discontinued operations in its full year report for 2015.
The Swedish telco’s 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.
TeliaSonera said it will change the accounting method for its Eurasian operations to one based on market values, reflecting forecasted sales, rather than on discounted values from continuing operations.
TeliaSonera and Turkcell were not immediately available for further comment.
