By Yeliz Candemir
ISTANBUL--Turkey's biggest mobile-phone operator by subscribers
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS's (TKC) first-quarter net profit
dropped by 61%, missing expectations, reflecting foreign-currency
losses from operations in Ukraine and Belarus, higher tax expenses
and one-off provisions.
Net income fell to 141.1 million liras ($53 million) in the
three months ended March from TRY359.5 million in the year-earlier
period, the Istanbul-based company said on its website late
Wednesday. Analysts had forecast a net profit of TRY234
million.
Turkcell said its revenue grew by 4.3% to TRY2.978 billion in
the period. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization, or Ebitda, rose 4.5% to TRY927 million.
Higher translation losses mainly originated from the 49%
devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia and a 24% devaluation of the
Belarusian ruble against the U.S. dollar. This "was partially
compensated for by the translation gain originating from the 13%
depreciation of Turkish lira against U.S. dollar due to our foreign
currency cash position," Turkcell said.
In early Thursday trading, Turkcell shares were up 1.2% at
TRY12.2, compared with a 0.1% rise in the benchmark BIST-100
Index.
Write to Yeliz Candemir at Yeliz.Candemir@wsj.com
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