Turkcell looking to bid for TeliaSonera’s Fintur stake

Turkey’s largest mobile service provider by subscribers, Turkcell, is looking to make a non-binding offer to acquire TeliaSonera’s 58.55% stake in Fintur, in a move which will give the Turkish operator full control of the subsidiary. According to Bloomberg citing people with knowledge on the matter, Turkcell has signed agreements to hire Citigroup and HSBC Holdings to advise on the acquisition, while earlier this month the company’s CEO Kaan Terzioglu said Turkcell intends to fully acquire Fintur in 2016 ‘if all negotiations go well’. The operator has not provided financial details regarding the value of TeliaSonera’s stake.

As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in September this year Turkcell declared that it was looking to appoint a strategic and financial advisor to explore the possibility of full acquisition of Fintur (inclusive of mobile operations in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova). The news was pursuant to TeliaSonera’s announcement that it had initiated a process to reduce, and over time fully exit, its presence in CIS and Asian markets. TeliaSonera is one of Turkcell’s major shareholders as well as its partner in Fintur. The jointly-owned cellular operators under consideration are K’cell (Kazakhstan), Azercell (Azerbaijan), Geocell (Georgia) and Moldcell (Moldova).