Turkcell registers drop in 2011 profit

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Turkcell General Manager Sürrya Ciliv is seen in this photo. In 2012 the company plans to invest 1.7 million lira towards technology and infrastructural investments.

Turkey’s telecommunications giant Turkcell grew 4 percent in 2011 from 2010, registering 9.37 billion Turkish Liras due to the increase in its mobile Internet revenues and the contributions from its subsidiaries, but its net income fell to 331.7 million liras in the quarter from 368.1 million liras a year earlier. Turkcell said on Feb. 17 that it expected profit at 330 million liras after an accounting change for its Belarus division to reflect inflation, according to Bloomberg.

In 2011 Turkcell increased its mobile Internet traffic 13-fold from 2009 and in the same two-year period also increased its mobile Internet revenues by 177 percent to reach 724 million liras.

The company, which is active in nine countries, increased its total number of subscribers to 65 million. In Turkey alone, Turkcell increased its number of subscribers by 1.1 million, registering 34.5 million local subscribers.

Turkcell added 2,000 new employees to its roster in 2011 and plans to add another 2,000 in 2012. It also plans to invest 1.7 billion lira towards technology and infrastructural investments and forecast that sales will increase in 2012 by as much as 7.8 percent to a range of 9.9 billion liras ($5.6 billion) to 10.1 billion liras from 9.37 billion liras last year, according to Bloomberg.

“With our 3G and fiber infrastructure investments throughout the year, we managed to launch Turkey into the top spot in the world in terms of communications and technological infrastructure,” said Turkcell General Manager Süreyya Ciliv.