Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority has cleared Ojer Telekom (Otas) to transfer the 55% stake it holds in Turk Telekom to a new entity established by its creditors.
Otas took out a loan of $4.75 billion from 29 banks in order to obtain its stake in Turk Telekom. Among these were Akbank, Garanti Bank and Isbank, which respectively loaned the group $1.5 billion, $1 billion and $500 million.
In February this year, Garanti Bank confirmed that it was seeking to take control of the 55% holding in Turk Telekom since Otas had been defaulting on its loan repayments for 18 months. In July, the group’s creditors requested control of the stake via a Special Purpose Vehicle.
In a statement, Turk Telekom confirmed that the investment vehicle would own the shares since regulatory clearance had been granted. The operator noted that its subsidiary units – including TT Mobil, TTNet and TT International Telekomunikasyon - would be unaffected by the transfer of control.
