Alfa agrees USD3.3 billion financing package for Turkcell

In a further twist in the battle for control for Turkcell, Russian industrial holding company Alfa has agreed to a USD3.3 billion financing package for the cellco, edging TeliaSonera further out of the picture. According to a report in the Financial Times, Alfa will provide the financing to Cukurova, the financially troubled group that owns a major stake in Turkcell. Part of the package consists of bonds convertible by Alfa into a 13% stake in Turkcell. The announcement follows weeks of confusion over the ownership of Turkcell: last month TeliaSonera, which has a 37% stake in the company, revealed it was launching legal action against Cukurova over the alleged breach of a deal which would have raised its holding by 27%. The move followed Alfa’s surprise announcement that it had ‘outbid’ TeliaSonera’s offer of USD3.1 billion.