Russia's Alfa offers $2.8bn to buy stake of Turkcell

Russia's Alfa Group offered 2.8 billion U.S. dollars on Tuesday to buy a stake of the largest Turkish mobile operator Turkcell, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.
Turkcell revealed that Alfa Group's Turkish subsidiary, Alfa Telecom Turkey, would pay 54.902 million U.S. dollars a share for 13.76 percent stake of Turkcell, which is owned by Turkey's Cukurova Group, the report said.
This is a critical move by Alfa prior to Turkcell shareholders meeting on March 26. If Cukurova agrees to transfer the stakes, the Russian group, which already holds a large interest in Turkcell via a series of holding companies, would have the majority of shares to control Turkey's top mobile operator.
However, analysts believe that the bid is likely to be blocked by Turkish regulatory authorities due to national security and strategic reasons.