Turkcell in talks to buy mobile-phone unit in Belarus

Bloomberg - Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Türkiye's biggest mobile-phone company, started talks to buy a majority stake in Belarusian Telecommunication Network, or BeST. Istanbul-based Turkcell has decided to make an offer to BeST shareholders, according to a filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange today. The filing didn't give further details. BeST, one of four mobile-phone operators in Belarus, has 190,000 customers, spokeswoman Taisiya Pastukhova said, declining to comment on the Turkcell filing. In February, Turkcell announced plans to buy a cellular operator in eastern Europe as it seeks to grow outside Türkiye. Turkcell, which has a unit in Ukraine, is in talks to acquire a stake in Syriatel, which has 54 percent of the Syrian mobile-phone market.