Turkcell plans foriegn acquisitions and investment in country’s mobile broadband (Turkey)
Turkcell, the Turkish mobile operator, plans to make acquisitions in Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Iraq, said the company’s chief executive.
“Our team is looking at some other Eastern European countries, northern African countries as well as our Middle Eastern neighbors,” CEO Sureyya Ciliv said.
The company is evaluating as to how it could enter the Iraqi market and also looks for opportunities in India and Pakistan.
Turkcell had also competed for mobile phone licenses in Iraq wbut after it was put to tender last year the telco pulled out after bids for these licenses reached over $800 million, which it said was too high a price.
“We won’t enter any market at any cost it would have to be at the right price,” Ciliv said.
Apart from Turkey, the company also operates in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, northern Cyprus and the Ukraine.
Turkcell owns nearly 56% of market share in Turkish mobile phone market.
“We think that our market share will continue to go down as we face intense competition but what is important to us is our revenues and profitability going forward,” Ciliv said. He also sees a lot of potential for growth with ever increasing penetration rates and also minutes of usage, which is being targeted as the area of profitability.
In terms of capital expenditure Turkcell is planning to invest heavily into mobile broadband.
“We’re expecting the tender of third-generation networks (to enable mobile broadband) in November. 3G will bring some new investment requirements. First we need to buy the license from the government, then make the necessary infrastructure investments very quickly to roll out mobile broadband to millions of Turkish subscribers,” Ciliv said.
He added the company Turkcell is also expected to have a 70% to 80% market share of the Turkish mobile broadband market as soon as the 3G-network becomes available.
