Turkey: Uzan Family Transferred Telsim

Cem Uzan and Hakan Uzan withdrew from the administration of Telsim (GSM company) and transferred their shares to another company called Standart Telecommunications. Cem and Hakan Uzan left the partnership and administration of Standart Telecommunications some time ago. Therefore, now the Telsim shares belong to a company, which seems as if it had no organic link with Uzans.

Telecommunications Institution (TK) had asked, with a letter, whether the news that Uzans had transferred their shares in Telsim to Nokia was true. A fax message from Telsim, responding to this question, made TK became aware of this transfer. The fax message stated that more than 50% of the shares of Telsim were transferred to Standard Telecommunications.

The transformation in the administration of Telsim Mobile Telecommunication Services Inc. was disclosed on Thursday. Cem Cengiz Uzan and Murat Hakan Uzan resigned from the administration and were replaced by the representatives of Standart Telecommunications. TK chairman Omer Arasil said that the administrative staff of Telsim could be changed but TK should be informed about any kind of transfer of shares before the transfer took place. According to Arasil it was an offense for the GSM operators to undertake share transfers out of the knowledge of TK. However Arasil said that this was his view, and the decision would be taken by TK.

Yildirim: We Closely Monitor Telsim

Communications Minister Binali Yildirim said that they were closely monitoring the developments about Telsim, and any share transfer should be known by TK.