Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at June 14th, 2008

Turkey’s new generation communication satellite, the Turksat 3A, was launched shortly before 1 a.m. from the Kourou base in French Guiana on Friday.

Turkey’s fifth satellite, Turksat will enable satellite and cable television operator Turksat to offer telecommunication services as well as direct TV broadcasting services over a broader area than that covered by its existing satellites, covering Turkey, Europe, Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

The launch was delayed due to software problems in May. Built by Franco-Italian consortium Thales Alenia Space, the satellite cost Turkey $200 million. It was put into orbit by Ariane-5, a European expendable launch system designed to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit. Ariane-5 rocket also carried a British military satellite into orbit. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 14th, 2008

Turkey will welcome the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), a system to deliver digital television services through broadband connection without restriction to conventional broadcasting means, with US SeaChange, which won the Türk Telekom tender for construction of the IPTV infrastructure.

Türk Telekom noted in a written statement yesterday that the winning company is quoted on NASDAQ and is known for its dominant presence in the Video on Demand (VoD) business. SeaChange is currently providing VoD services to over 40 million cable TV customers worldwide. The statement said SeaChange would begin constructing the infrastructure but that the IPTV platform would later be improved by Argela, a Türk Telekom subsidiary. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 13th, 2008

The Turkish Treasury has earned $1.9 billion from the sale of a 15 percent share in Turkey’s telecommunications giant, Türk Telekom.

Assessing the results of the IPO at a press conference yesterday, Privatization Administration (ÖİB) President Metin Kilci said the high demand for the Türk Telekom shares at a time of turbulence in global markets should be seen as a vote of confidence in Turkey. Kilci said that in the book-building process domestic investors had demanded YTL 4.6 billion worth of Türk Telekom shares, whereas total demand by foreign investors exceeded YTL 6.3 billion. Therefore, Kilci said, 40 percent of the for-sale shares were set aside for domestic investors and the remaining 60 percent were reserved for foreign interests. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 12th, 2008

Turkey earned 2.42 billion liras ($1.9 billion) in the initial public offering of a 15 percent stake in the Turk Telekomunikasyon AS phone company, making it the country’s record IPO.

Turkey’s privatization board sold Turk Telekom shares for 4.60 liras ($3.66) each, close to the top range of 4.70 liras. International investors bid for 4.3 times the stock on offer, and domestic investors for 4.7 times the available shares. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 7th, 2008

GSM operator Vodafone announced on Tuesday it plans to sell iPhone to its customers in Turkey later this year.

The company said it agreed with Apple Inc. to sell iPhone in 10 countries.

“Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network,” the UK-based company said in a statement. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 7th, 2008

Turkey’s GSM market, which has a volume of 65 million subscribers, will grow further soon through a new implementation that will allow companies to offer phone line services just like GSM operators.

The Telecommunications Authority has included the Mobile Network Virtual Operator (MNVO) project in its plan for the second half of the year, Turkey’s weekly economy magazine Ekonomist reported.

Virtual operators, which are expected to begin receiving licenses in June, will be able to form their own customer portfolios by making use of the infrastructure of one or more GSM operators. They will also have an opportunity to sell GSM lines under their own brands. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 2nd, 2008

Turkey’s leading mobile operator, Turkcell, denied on Thursday there was US pressure on the company to abandon a takeover of a Syrian operator, saying that the talks were continuing.

“The US has put no written or spoken pressure on Turkcell or made such a statement … There is no warning on investment (in Syria),” said one Turkcell official, who declined to be named. Diplomats and Arab financiers on Wednesday told Reuters the US Treasury Department was warning American investors in Turkcell, which is listed on the İstanbul and New York bourse, about the company’s plan to buy leading Syrian mobile operator Syriatel. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 1st, 2008

The United States is putting pressure on Turkish mobile phone operator Turkcell to abandon a $1 billion takeover of a cellphone company owned by a Syrian tycoon targeted by US sanctions, diplomats and Arab financiers said on Wednesday.

The US Treasury Department is warning American investors in Turkcell, which is listed on the İstanbul and New York bourse, about the company’s plan to buy the leading Syrian operator Syriatel, they told Reuters.

Syriatel is at least 69 percent owned by Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of President Bashar al-Assad. Washington imposed high profile sanctions on Makhlouf in February for alleged involvement in public corruption in Syria as relations between the Damascus government and the United States plummeted. (more…)