Türk Telekom mulls big tech investment with a foreign company: CEO

Türk Telekom is holding talks with a foreign company for an investment to develop new generation technologies, said Ümit Önal, its CEO.

This will mark a significant foreign direct investment and those tech products will be exported, Önal told a group of journalists without naming the potential foreign partner. But he said that the investment plans will be made public in two months.

Önal noted that Türk Telekom's investments have increased by 74 percent in the first nine months of 2023 compared with the same period of 2022, adding that the details of the company's 2024 investment plans will be unveiled in February next year.

He noted that they applied to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) for the extension of the concession agreement, which is due to expire in February 2026, for fixed-line services.

The company will make a payment for the extension and this amount will be decided by the Treasury and Finance Ministry and the BTK, Önal explained.

"We will also extend the 2G agreement to 2029 in 2026."

After the concession is settled, a secondary public offering could be on their agenda, Önal said, adding that they also consider offering the shares of some of their subsidiaries to the public.

Consolidated revenues of Türk Telekom amounted to 22.4 billion Turkish Liras in the third quarter of 2023, rising by 78.2 percent from a year ago, showed the company's latest financials.

The company's net income in the quarter nearly quadrupled compared with the third quarter of 2022 to stand at 4.5 billion liras.

Total number of subscribers rose to 52.9 million with 498,000 net additions during the quarter, thanks to strong contributions from mobile and fixed internet, the company said in...