At least two UAE companies are in the running for Turkish telecoms operator, Telsim, it was revealed yesterday. Etisalat it one of seven companies involved in the first round of bidding, according to Turkey's semi-official Anatolia news agency.
Emaar has also been named by Dow Jones as a bidder, while the Associated Press named the previously-unknown Dubai-based International Investments and Telecommunications.
Emaar were yesterday unable to say whether or not IIT was the vehicle through which it was making a bid for Telsim.
The UAE firms are up against some of the world's leading mobile telecoms firms, including the UK's Vodafone, Egypt's Orascom, Russia's Sistema, Kuwait's MTC, and Germany's Endeks Telecom.
In October of this year, Etisalat and Emaar both confirmed that they had prequalified to bid for Telsim, which is oneof 200 companies formerly owned by the Uzan family, but were taken over by the Turkish government to collect debts from the failure of the family's flagship bank, Imar.
This is Etisalat's second attempt to get into the Turkish market. Earlier this year, it lost out to Saudi Oger when bidding for Turk Telecom, Turkey's state-owned telecommunications provider.
The loss was a major blow to Etisalat's international ambitions, as a presence in Turkey would give it a foothold in Europe when Turkey eventually joins the European Union.
Vodafone yesterday confirmed that it had submitted a sealed bid to buy Telsim. Turkey is an "interesting market" for mobile telecoms, said a spokesman.
© Tehran Times 2005
