Turkcell launched an appeal against the Ukrainian anti-monopoly authority’s blockade of the sale of its units in Ukraine to Illiad-owned DVL Telecom.
Turkcell detailed in a statement, a Ukrainian court ordered the seizure of 19.8% of the corporate rights of MNO Lifecell, and 100% rights of tower company Ukrtower and mobile payments platform Paycell.
The seizure was ordered due to the suspicion that Russian oligarch Mikail Fridman, who had been hit by sanctions in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, is somewhat involved with the three Turkcell subsidiaries.
Turkcell said in a statement: “We would like to emphasise that we believe that the aforementioned person has no control or influence over our Ukrainian subsidiaries. This ruling has not had any significant impact on the daily operations of these Ukrainian subsidiaries.”
The Anti-monopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) said in a separate statement: "When considering DVL Telecom's applications to acquire control of the Lifecell Group, there was a need to verify the control relations of participants in the concentration, particularly the Lifecell Group and the Turkcell Group, with the person to whom personal special economic and other restrictive measures/sanctions were applied as per the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine," reported Interfax.
Illiad struck a multi-million dollar deal in January to acquire the Ukrianian units.
