The Turkish treasury has told Otas, the owners of Turk Telekom, that it may take control of the company’s management if it fails to outline a plan to resolve a debt issue involving the country’s biggest syndicated loan, anonymous contacts who are familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on July 12. In a letter to Otas on June 23, the treasury said it may exercise its rights to dismiss existing board members and take over its management if Otas cannot agree a restructuring plan with banks for the $4.75bn loan, the contacts said.
Otas owns 55% of Turk Telekom while the treasury’s stake in the telecom giant is 25%. Otas has already missed repayments on the loan several times. It also has had to make the missed payments due on the loan this month, according to the contacts.
The outstanding principal on the loan, received from 29 Turkish and international lenders in 2013, is $4.6bn, sources told the news service in April.
Turkish lender Akbank’s exposure to the loan is $1.5bn while Garanti Bankasi’s exposure is $1bn, and Is Bankasi lent $500mn, according to Bloomberg.
Saudi Telekom, which indirectly owns a stake in Otas through Oger Telecom, improved its offer to lenders, saying it would reduce the loss if they would take on the outstanding loan, Bloomberg reported on May 30.
Turk Telekom’s net profit declined by 84% y/y to TRY66mn (€16.2mn) in Q1, due to foreign exchange losses sustained because of the sharp depreciation of the lira.
Related Articles
S&P upgrades ratings of Freedom subsidiaries to ‘BB-’
S&P Global Ratings has upgraded the credit ratings of several subsidiaries of Nasdaq-listed Freedom Holding, raising ratings on Freedom Finance, Freedom Finance Europe, Freedom Finance Global and ... more
Kazakhstan’s Freedom fintech sets out to emulate and exceed Revolut in Europe
Freedom Holding Corp (Nasdaq: FRHC) is positioning itself to expand deeper into Europe’s financial services market with plans to launch a digital bank in France, backed by a €500mn ($572mn) ... more
Fintech Freedom Holding aims to make France key entry point into EU with €500mn investment
A French banking licence would open the way to a new phase in the international expansion of Nasdaq-listed fintech group Freedom Holding Corp. That’s the expectation of Freedom, a company ... more