TeliaSonera Seeks Court Protection On Turkcell Deal -IHA

ISTANBUL -(Dow Jones)- Nordic telecommunications company TeliaSonera (TLSN.SK) said Tuesday it has applied to the International Court of Arbitration to protect its rights in the planned sale of a 27.2% stake of Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (TKC), the Ihlas News Agency reported Tuesday.

In a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange, TeliaSonera said it has applied to the court to defend its rights in purchasing key Turkcell assets from Cukurova Group.

"As we declared before we believe that Turkcell still has the obligation to finalize our planned transaction with goodwill," TeliaSonera said.

TeliaSonera and Cukurova announced an agreement in March to transfer a 27.2% stake to the Nordic group, raising its holding in Turkcell to 64.3%.

But TeliaSonera disclosed on May 23 that, in spite of mutual agreement on all conditions and an approval by Turkcell shareholders, Cukurova Group has not signed the final share transfer accord.

TeliaSonera's Russian rival Alfa Group (ALFAGP.YY) had disclosed it would outbid the $3.1 billion offer by TeliaSonera just after the pre-agreement between Cukurova and TeliaSonera was announced.

TeliaSonera Chief Executive Anders Igel had also warned Cukurova that it should not be in talks with third parties about the sale of Turkcell assets.

Cukurova, which has fallen into financial turmoil after one of its banks was seized by the Turkish banking watchdog, wants to sell its key Turkcell shares and provide fresh resources for fulfilling its obligations stemming from a debt-restructuring plan with the banking regulators.

Turkcell is Europe's seventh-largest operator of global system for mobile communications, or GSM, a leading cellular wireless standard, with 23.4 million subscribers and a 70% local market share.

Agency Web sites: http://www.ihanews.net; www.iha.com.tr

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 7th June 2005