Alfa Telecom to buy 13.76% stake in Turkey's mobile phone operator Turkcell for $2.8 bn

Russia's Alfa Telecom today offered to buy a 13.76-per cent indirect stake in Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS for $2.8 billion, a move that will double Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's holding in Turkey's largest mobile phone operator.

Alfa Telecom Turkey Ltd, the Turkish subsidiary of Russia's Alfa Telecom, offered to buy 51 B Group shares in Turkcell for $54.902 million each from Cukurova Telecom Holdings Ltd, a holding company controlled by Turkcell's founder Mehmet Emin Karamehmet.

Some of these 51 B-class Turkcell shares were given to Turkey's state-run lender TC Ziraat Bankasi AS as security for a $1.6-billion loan in 2014.

Alfa's offer would require the consent of both Cukurova and Ziraat.

Alfa, owned by Fridman, already owns 13.22 per cent stake in Turkcel, while Scandinavian telecom operator TeliaSonera AB holds 38.04 per cent and 27.25 per cent are publicly traded.

Alfa has been waging a running battle with Karamehmet for control of Turkcell, but Karamehmet through Cukurova Telecom took a $1.6-billion loan from Ziraat to fund the buyback of some shares from Alfa.

Istanbul-based Turkcell is Turkey's largest mobile phone operator with 34.4 million subscribers. It also operates in Northern Cyprus through its brand North Cyprus Turkcell.

It also provides GSM services in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine through its partners.