Shareholders reach long-awaited agreement over Turkcell shares

LONDON

Two shareholders of Turkey’s largest mobile operator Turkcell, Turkish Çukurova Holding and Russian Altimo, have reached an agreement in an ongoing legal battle, a U.K. court looking into the legal dispute between parties has announced.

In a statement released on its website, U.K. Privy Council has said Alfa agreed to lend $1.352 billion to Çukurova Holding for the redemption of the latter’s shares in the mobile operator, marking the end of the years-long dispute that paralyzed the company.

Çukurova and Altimo, the telecom’s investment arm of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group, have been fighting for seven years for control of Turkcell, choking decision-making at the firm and preventing the payment of dividends.

The court had originally extended the deadline for Çukurova until July 30 for the company to pay $1.6 billion to recover a disputed stake in Turkcell from Altimo.

In its July 25 statement, the court said the hearing, which was scheduled for July 30, will not take place now.

Çukurova held talks with Yıldız Holding subsidiary Gözde Girişim to secure financing to help the company recover its disputed shares, but disapproval of the Treasury and the Capital Markets watchdog caused the attempt to fail, Yıldız announced last week.