In a recent development regarding the Nokia-Motorola law suit against Turkish telecom firm Telsim Mobil, American legal authorities have decided to hold 73.5 percent of Telsim’s shares until May 24, reported Gumhuriyet. The judge also prohibited Telsim’s owner, Uzan Holdings, from transferring the telecom company’s assets elsewhere or from carrying out transactions that could decrease the value of its shares.
Finland’s Nokia and the United States’ Motorola have alleged that Telsim and Rumeli Telefon—also an Uzan-run company—defrauded them by not paying back their loans and illegally diverting funds and assets to other family enterprises, reported Anatolia. In a counter-offensive, Telsim said that Nokia had not fulfilled its obligations under contracts for the sale of equipment and announced plans to counter-sue the two firms.
GSM operator Telsim was founded in 1993 on 100 percent domestic capital. In 1998, Telsim obtained its license for 25 years by the agreement made with Turkish Telecom. Telsim is Turkey's second-largest operator after Turkcell, a partnership between Turkey's Cukurova Holding and Sonera. A third operator that started operations in March 2001 is Aria, a partnership between Is Bankasi and Telecom Italia Mobile. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
