Turkcell has revealed it plans to make a non-binding offer to buy TeliaSonera’s 58.55% stake in their Eurasian joint venture Fintur after the Turkish operator’s board approved a bid.
Turkcell (IST:TCELL) has revealed it plans to make a non-binding offer to buy TeliaSonera’s (STO:TLSN) 58.55% stake in their Eurasian joint venture Fintur after the Turkish operator’s board approved a bid.
In mid-September TeliaSonera said it would exit its seven Eurasian countries. Its interests in four of those markets – Azerbaijan (Azercell), Georgia (Geocell), Kazakhstan (Kcell), and Moldova (Moldcell) – are held through Fintur.
Turkcell’s plan to offer to buy TeliaSonera out is not a surprise. A day after the Swedish telco announced intention to sell, Turkcell initiated a process to hire a strategic and financial adviser to examine a Fintur takeover.
TeliaSonera is also looking to withdraw from Uzbekistan (Ucell), Nepal (Ncell), and Tajikistan (Tcell).
After years caught in a tug-of-war between its main investors – Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Altimo, Turkish billionaire Mehmet Emin Karamehmet’s Cukurova and Swedish telco TeliaSonera, Turkcell issued its first dividend in years in March and a US$500m bond in October.
At that time, it said it was ready to invest in “organic and inorganic growth opportunities to strengthen our position in the countries where we operate”.