Saudi Telecom reportedly interested in buying majority stake in Turk Telekom

By bne IntelliNews August 28, 2017

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is in the lead to buy the 55% of Turk Telekom owned by Oger Telecom, sources told Reuters on August 25.

The Turkish government could acquire the $3.9bn stake if those talks fail, they added.

“Currently only STC shows a clear interest in the acquisition. There are several interested Gulf companies but only STC has entered negotiations,” one of the sources told the news service.

The government may play an active role as a buyer with a public institution in the case that STC does not buy, according to the source.

Oger's creditors want the sale to be completed by September to retain a loan classification as "performing" and avoid an increase in bad loan provisions, another source said.

“If the debt is no longer a performing loan, banks will have to raise provisions and their profitability will be put under pressure. Banks are meeting with independent auditors to keep this credit as a performing loan until the end of the year,” the source added.

Turk Telekom’s net profit jumped to TRY890 (€215mn) in Q2 from TRY408mn a year ago, the company said on July 25 in a bourse filing.

Bloomberg reported in July that the Turkish treasury may take control of Turk Telekom’s management if Oger Telecom’s Otas, which owns 55% of Turk Telekom, fails to outline a plan to resolve a debt issue involving the country’s biggest syndicated loan.

Some creditor banks of Oger Telecom were in unofficial talks to sell its  stake in Turk Telekom, Reuters reported also last month.

Oger reportedly has missed debt repayments on the $4.75bn loan.

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