The Murabaha financing agreement is with 14 banks as Türkiye’s three major mobile operators – Turkcell, Turk Telekom, and Vodafone – prepare to launch 5G on 1 April
Turkcell Türkiye’s biggest operator, has signed a $1 billion (€864.2 million) syndicated international Murabaha financing with 14 banks to fund investments in 5G and next-generation communication technologies. Murabaha is an Islamic ‘cost-plus’ financing structure whereby a bank or banks purchase(s) assets on behalf of a customer and resells them to the customer at a disclosed mark-up.
According to Turkcell, this is the largest ever syndicated Islamic financing facility for a Turkish corporation “with very competitive maturity profile and pricing terms”. The press statement also says, “With the recent escalations in the Middle East, with supply chain concerns and challenging financing conditions in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] the transaction underscores Turkcell’s strong credit profile and strategic access to international capital markets.
Ready for launch
Türkiye is preparing to launch 5G on 1 April – the launch date was confirmed by the Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu at the start of this month, reported by Türkiye Today.
He said Türkiye’s three major mobile operators are on track to launch 5G services nationwide, with coverage reaching all 81 provincial centres by the launch date. The Minister said the government aims to extend full 5G coverage to every part of Türkiye within two years.
The 5G tender was held on 16 October last year and generated $3.534 billion. Turkcell, Turk Telekom, and Vodafone all acquired 5G frequencies.
Strictures on suppliers
As part of the 5G licensing, in the first year, operators must source at least 50% of infrastructure from certified domestic products, rising to 60% in subsequent years, with a minimum of 5% coming from national communications products. By comparison, for 4.5G, the domestic content requirement started at 30% and was later raised to 45%.
