Turkey's Turkcell Operating Loss in Ukraine Widens 45% in 2006

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (Prime-Tass) -- The operating loss of Turkish mobile operator Turkcell in Ukraine widened 45% on the year to US$154.934 million in 2006, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the company said in a statement obtained by Prime-Tass Thursday.

Turkcell's revenue from Ukrainian business soared 93% on the year to $87.949 million in 2006 and capital expenditures fell 26% to $200.237 million, Turkcell said.

Turkcell indirectly controls Ukraine's third largest mobile operator Astelit.

Astelit's subscriber base more than doubled to 5.55 million people last year and was at 5.74 million people as of January 31.

Astelit launched service under the ?life:)? brand name in January 2005 and currently covers territory where 90% of Ukraine?s population resides.

Turkcell owns 54.8% in Netherlands-based Eurasia Telecommunications Holdings, which in turn fully owns Astelit.

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Posted to the site on 1st March 2007