Avea looking at USD1.5bn loan

Turkey’s third largest cellular operator Avea says it is close to securing a USD1.5 billion syndicated loan from foreign banks. Part of the loan will be used to restructure existing debt, with the remainder going towards overseas investments. Avea is controlled by state-backed wireline operator Turk Telecom and claimed 7.3 million of Turkey’s 50.2 million cellular subscribers at the end of September, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database.