Turkey’s largest telecoms operator, Turkcell revealed plans to increase its existing 41.45% stake in Fintur in September this year, when TeliaSonera announced that it was exiting the Eurasia region entirely.
Fintur has operating interests in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, and Turkcell hopes the acquisition to increase its holdings in carriers operating in these countries.
However, Henrik Westman, a TeliaSonera spokesman, told reporters yesterday that Turkcell is not the only one interested in Fintur.
“Since we announced this a little more than two months ago, we have seen a big interest for our business in Eurasia, including the four Fintur countries,” he said.
According to Jon David Gjertsen, analyst at Pareto Securities in Oslo, TeliaSonera’s Fintur stake is valued at 0.8 krona per share, amounting to a value of approximately $430 million.
