Turkey’s leading cellco Turkcell TCELL.IS said today (11 April) that it has decided to bid for state-owned Belarussian mobile operator BeST as it seeks to expand its reach in the region.
Turkcell said in a statement: “Our company has decided to begin works to make a bid to shareholders to buy a majority stake in Belarussian Telecommunication Network (BeST).”
Last year Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said the government was ready to cede control of BeST for around USD 500 million. In October, Belarus agreed to sell control of the country’s number 2 mobile phone operator MDC, operating under the Velcom brand, to Telekom Austria for USD 1 billion.
Turkcell already has interests in mobile phone operations in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia and has repeatedly said it wants to expand in the regions around Turkey.