ISTANBUL - Turkey's Cukurova group said Monday it had refused to sign a final deal with Swedish-Finnish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera for a majority stake in Turkey's biggest mobile operator Turkcell and was looking at options that would not change control of the company.
"In light of the demands both from the public and from Turkcell's general meeting for a highly prestigious company such as Turkcell to stay under the control of a Turkish group, Cukurova Holdings will start work on possibilities that will not lead to a change of control," the group said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange.
Cukurova Holdings, one of the country's most diverse conglomerates, is still recovering after reaching the brink of bankruptcy during an economic crisis in 2001.
It is currently the biggest shareholder of Turkcell with 42 percent.
TeliaSonera had said in March that it would pay 3.1 billion dollars (about 2.5 billion euros) for an additional 27 percent of Turkcell, taking its total holding to 64.3 percent.
The company had said that the deal would be subject to regulatory approvals and especially an exemption from the mandatory tender offer requirement from the Turkish Capital Markets Board.
The two companies had set May 23 as a deadline to sign the final share sale agreement.
Turkcell has some 23 million subscribers and some 5,000 employees. It is also the first Turkish company to be listed on Wall Street.
05/23/2005 10:05 GMT