On Nov. 7, 2002, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (Turkcell), Turkey's leading cellular telephone operator, to stable from negative following the outlook revision to stable from negative on the Republic of Turkey. The single-'B'-minus long-term foreign-currency corporate credit rating on the company was affirmed. At the same time, Standard&Poor's raised its long-term debt rating on the guaranteed senior unsecured notes held by Dutch subsidiary Cellco Finance N.V. to single-'B'-minus from triple-'C'-plus. The equalization with the corporate credit rating follows the gradual repayment of a number of secured bank facilities, which now represent only a minor portion of the company's asset base and therefore afford pari passu protection to existing unsecured
