Turkish mobile operator hit by forex losses in Belarus, interconnection fees.
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Turkey's largest cell phone operator, late Wednesday posted a second-quarter net loss--falling short of analysts' forecasts-mostly due to the impact of devaluation in Belarus and a fine imposed on the company by Turkey's competition board.
Turkcell, which has 56% of the Turkish cell phone market, said its net loss in the second quarter was 21.4 million Turkish lira ($12.6 million), well below the Dow Jones Newswires analyst survey of an average TRY39.8 million net profit.
According to a press release, the company posted a net profit of TRY422.3 million in the same period of last year.
The company's revenue rose 1.7% on the year to TRY2.279 billion in the second quarter, missing average analysts' forecasts of TRY2.36 billion revenue.
"The main reason for loss is foreign exchange losses in its Belarus unit and interconnection fees increases due to on-going competition between mobile operators, so the competition squeezes margins," said Kenan Turan, an analyst with Tera Borkers in Istanbul.
Turkcell, one of the leading mobile operators, operates in nine countries. The Belarus unit is one of its small-scale operations, so the company will be able to continue its successful performance in this market, Turkcell Chief Executive, Sureyya Ciliv, told local broadcaster CNBC-e.
Turkcell increased its number of subscribers by 1 million to 34.1 million in the second quarter of the year, Ciliv said.
"Turkcell will continue to make investments and it will invest TRY1 billion in technology and infrastructure in the second quarter of 2011," he said.
