Turkey’s Cukurova Group has won a significant victory in its attempt to regain control of Turkcell following a ruling by the UK Privy Council.
In it, the Council said that Cukurova, which is owned by entrepreneur Mehmet Karamehmnet, should pay Russia’s Alfa Group $1.56 billion (€1.21 billion) to reacquire Turkcell, which Alga Group took control of in 2007 when Cukurova defaulted on a loan of $1.35 billion.
Although the amount Cukurova will be required to pay is significantly less than originally expected – Alfa Group was seeking more than $3 billion – it still remains to be seen how Cukurova will find the money, interest on which has started to accrue since yesterday (July 9).
It has 60 days to pay the money, which is for a 13.8% stake in Turkcell, Turkey’s leading mobile company, but in May had a number of its own assets seized by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) for failing to control its debts.
These include the DTH platform Digitürk, which has recently attracted interest from a number of prospective buyers including Dogan Media Group’s rival DTH platform D-Smart, along with Show TV and Skytürk.
Besides being Turkey’s leading mobile operator, Turkcell is also has a presence in its TV industry.
It has just announced that its interactive and social TV platform Turkcell TV recently signed an a three-year deal with Oflaz Media Group’s SinemaTV for the distribution of the latter’s SinemaTV package, which includes three channels and the complimentary on demand service Sinema Hemen (Sinema Now).
