The shareholders of Turkish mobile operator Turkcell lost an opportunity to remove chairman Colin Williams over accusations of impartiality violations on 12 October.
Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera and Russian investment firm Altimo had called for…
The shareholders of Turkish mobile operator Turkcell lost an opportunity to remove chairman Colin Williams over accusations of impartiality violations on 12 October.
Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera and Russian investment firm Altimo had called for an EGM to replace Williams and appoint more independent members to its board.
They have been seeking to dilute the influence of Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, Turkcell’s founder. Karamehmet owns around 14% of Turkcell through Cukurova, but effectively controls it via a majority ownership of Turkcell Holding, which owns 51% of the mobile operator. TeliaSonera holds a 37% stake in the group, while Altimo owns 13.22%.
But the motion was not put to the vote because of new regulation from Turkey’s Capital Markets Board that was announced on 11 October, said Turkcell in a statement. These rules require potential independent board candidates to file detailed biographies one week before a shareholder vote.
Reports have questioned the timing of the regulation, although a spokesman for the Capital Markets Board has been cited saying that it had been working on the new rules for some time.
The Capital Markets Board was unable to be reached before the press deadline.
However, the new regulation also requires Turkcell to ensure that one third of the members on its board are independent, and not to be less than two, according to a company spokesman.
“Based on this regulation, Turkcell should have three independent BoD members. Currently, Turkcell has one independent member,” he said.
Turkcell also announced that, because its 2010 balance sheet and profits/loss statements were not approved, its board of directors’ recommendation to distribute a dividend of 75% from the fiscal year 2010 profits was “not put to the vote”.
Cukurova had filed a lawsuit to stop the Turkish cellco from holding its EGM on 12 October, but this was rejected by the court.
