Turkey’s Cukurova Holding is finally poised to recover its controlling stake in Turkcell, Reuters reports, with the long-awaited USD1.56 billion payment to Russia’s Altimo now expected to take place on 31 July. Although the identity of the lender has not officially been confirmed, state-owned Ziraat Bank has been named as the most likely candidate.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Russia’s Altimo, the telecoms investment arm of oligarch Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group, appropriated the stake when Cukurova defaulted on a USD1.35 billion loan. In July 2013 the Privy Council decided that Cukurova must pay USD1.56 billion to recover the stake. The Privy Council heard the case because Cukurova is registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
The Privy Council was formerly a supreme court of appeal for the entire British Empire (other than for the United Kingdom itself), and continues to hear appeals from the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, and a number of Commonwealth member countries.