Turkcell's net profit decreases 36 percent in Q1 of this year

ISTANBUL — Turkey's leading mobile phone operator, Turkcell, earned 359 million Turkish lira ($168 million) in net profit in the first quarter of this year.

The net profit is thirty six percent decrease over the same period of the previous year after Turkcell's Ukrainian businesses were affected from devaluation of the local currency. Turkcell enters its 20. year of service in Turkey.

Turkcell's revenues were up six percent to 2.85 billion TL ($1.3 billion) in the first quarter of 2014 over the same quarter of 2013, caused by positive contributions of incomes of mobile Internet and growing of its group companies.

Economic instability in Ukraine and substantial public debt has resulted in a sharp weakening of Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia), which has lost more than 27 percent in 2014 to 11.345 per dollar.

Turkcell's mobile business revenues in Turkey, negatively affected by regulatory decisions and increased competition, remained flat, whereas mobile broadband grew by 26 percent.

Turkcell's shares have been traded on İstanbul Stock Exchange (Borsa Istanbul) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) since July 2000 and it is the first and only Turkish company ever to be listed on NYSE.

Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, with 34.8 million subscribers as of March 31, 2014.

Turkcell has investments in foreign countries as well and it is a leading regional player. Turkcell has investments in communication sectors in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia Moldova and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with its approximately 70.1 million subscribers in nine countries as of March 31, 2014.