Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

The majority owner of Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS is proposing that Turkey’s biggest mobile carrier pays 3.93 billion liras ($1.5 billion) in dividends to investors including TeliaSonera AB, its first payout in five years.

Turkcell Holding, which owns 51 percent of the Turkish carrier, will propose the dividend at the phone company’s March 26 shareholder meeting, TeliaSonera said Wednesday. TeliaSonera, whose holding in Turkcell is about 38 percent, said it is set to receive about $530 million after taxes.

The Turkish carrier has been at the center of a dispute between the three main shareholders -- TeliaSonera, Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s companies, and Cukurova Telecom Holdings Ltd. Turkcell has failed to pay dividends since 2010 because of the dispute.

“This agreement is a first positive step to improvement of matters at Turkcell and our hope is that the deadlock will shortly be resolved completely, and corporate governance restored, and foreign investors in Turkish companies will be welcomed by the Turkish government,” Fridman’s Alfa Group said in an e-mailed statement.

The payout proposal represents dividends for the fiscal years 2010 to 2014 and is equal to about 42.5 percent of the net profit accumulated during the period, TeliaSonera said.

Turkcell shares rose as much as 6.5 percent, the biggest gain in 10 weeks, and advanced 5.4 percent to 13.70 liras at 11:45 a.m. in Istanbul. TeliaSonera added 0.8 percent to 54.75 kronor in Stockholm.