Following its revision of the outlook on the Republic of Turkey to negative from stable (please see press release dated July 9, 2002, on RatingsDirect, Standard&Poor's Web-based credit-analysis service), Standard&Poor's maintained its negative outlook on Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (Turkcell), Turkey's leading operator of mobile telephony, on July 10, 2002. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its single-'B'-minus foreign currency long-term corporate credit rating on Turkcell. The outlook revision on Turkey reflects Standard&Poor's concerns that political instability could persist and jeopardize the IMF-supported economic program. Although Turkcell continued to post solid business fundamentals in the first quarter of 2002--such as sustained customer-base and revenue growth--and dramatically cut its capital expenditures to boost
