Turkish Banks Hire Morgan Stanley to Sell Turk Telekom Stake

(Bloomberg) -- A group of Turkish banks hired Morgan Stanley as financial adviser to sell their 55% stake in the country’s largest phone company, Turk Telekomunikasyon AS. The carrier’s shares rose more than 4%.

The three banks -- Turkiye Is Bankasi AS, Akbank TAS and Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS -- took control of Turk Telekom in December, setting it up for a likely sale after previous owner Otas defaulted on a multi-billion-dollar loan.

The plan is to sell special purpose vehicle Levent Yapilandirma Yonetimi AS -- which holds the 55% stake in Turk Telekom -- or the stake that it holds, according to separate statements to Borsa Istanbul. Turkish brokerages Ak Investment, Garanti Securities and Is Investment will act as local advisers.

Turk Telekom reversed a daily decline in Istanbul, closing up 4.2% at 5.66 liras, its highest since Sept. 5.

Akbank owns 35.6% of the SPV, Garanti Bankasi 22.1% and Isbank 11.6%, according to filings in December. The names of the other owners weren’t disclosed.

The Otas creditors, which also included BNP Paribas SA and Deutsche Bank AG, provided it with a $4.75 billion loan in 2013. Otas failed to pay a September 2016 installment on the loan, leading to years of talks to try to recover the money.

To contact the reporter on this story: Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Pfeiffer at tpfeiffer3@bloomberg.net, Jennifer Ryan

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