ISTANBUL
The mobile phone operator Avea has secured a $400 million bank loan, major shareholder Turk Telekom said Thursday.
The company did not specify what the funds would be used for.
The $400 million loan is a club loan, bearing an interest rate of London Interbank Offered Rate -- the average interbank lending rate -- plus 2.60 percent, Turkey's formerly state-owned telecommunications company said in a statement filed with Borsa Istanbul. A club loan is a loan in which several banks lend to the same borrower.
The loan is to be paid back over five years, after a two-year grace period.
Speculation on the purpose of the loan is difficult, because Avea, Turkey’s third largest mobile carrier, saw second-quarter growth of 75 percent in mobile data income compared with the same period of the previous year. Revenue hit 1.06 billion liras ($715.5 million), up 14 percent from that quarter in 2013.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) -- a noted measure of performance -- rose 15.5 percent year-on-year to 149 million Turkish lira ($69 million) in the second quarter of 2014.
Turk Telekom now holds 89,99 percent of the shares in Avea. The remaining 10,01 percent belongs to Is Bankası which is main lender in the country.
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