Turkcell asks court to remove arrest from 19.8% of lifecell

Turkish Turkcell, the parent company of the lifecell mobile operator (formerly Astelit), has asked the court to remove the arrest from 19.8% of lifecell LLC.

This is stated in the Turkcell message, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Our company was informed through its Ukrainian subsidiary that it received an official decision of the Ukrainian court dated March 5, 2024 on the arrest of 19.8% of the corporate rights of lifecell LLC and 100% of the corporate rights of Ukrtower LLC within the framework of criminal proceedings related to suspicions raised by Mikhail Fridman. We would like to emphasize that we believe that the above person has no control or influence over our Ukrainian subsidiaries... The appeal to the relevant court was filed on March 7, 2024 with the aim of overturning the arrests," it said.

According to the message, all necessary conditions are being fulfilled, including the cancellation of this court order, to close the transaction for the sale of the Ukrainian assets of NJJ Capital.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) found grounds for prohibiting the acquisition of control by DVL Telecom, which is part of the investment company NJJ Capital of the French billionaire Xavier Niel, of the lifecell mobile operator of (formerly Astelit).

In January, Xavier Niel said that his investment company NJJ Capital agreed to pay USD 500 million for the Ukrainian divisions of Turkcell, in particular for the lifecell mobile operator.

In October 2023, a court has seized all corporate rights in Ukraine that belonged to sanctioned russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and Andrei Kosogov.

In particular, the court arrested 47.85% of shares of PrJSC Kyivstar and 19.8% of the authorized capital of the lifecell mobile operator.