On March 25, 2005, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services placed its 'B' long-term foreign-currency corporate credit rating on Turkey's leading mobile telephony provider Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. on CreditWatch with positive implications. At the same time, Standard&Poor's put its 'B' senior unsecured debt rating on related entity Cellco Finance N.V. on CreditWatch with positive implications. The CreditWatch placement follows Nordic telecommunications provider TeliaSonera AB's (A/Watch Neg/A-1) announced agreement today to acquire a 27% indirect stake in Turkcell from Turkey's Çukurova group for a cash payment of $3.1 billion (Swedish kronor (Skr) 21.8 billion). TeliaSonera already owns a 37% share in Turkcell and will consequently gain majority control of the company with a 64.3% stake. Turkcell had total debt
