Turk Telekom blames lira fall for 2016 losses

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA (AA) - Turk Telekom -- Turkey’s only integrated telecommunications service provider -- made a loss of 724 million Turkish liras ($195 million) in 2016 due to the fall in the currency’s value, the company said late on Wednesday.

In a statement to Borsa Istanbul, the company said “forex losses driven by Turkish lira depreciation against the dollar and euro” were behind the decline.

The loss came after a profit of 907.4 million Turkish liras ($309 million) in 2015.

Sales last year rose around 10.9 percent to 16.10 billion Turkish liras ($4.3 billion), the highest annual growth since an IPO in 2008, the company said.

Turk Telekom, privatized in 2005 to Oger Telecom, also said its group subscribers reached 38.9 million with 1.5 million net additions last year, the highest annual net subscriber gain since the IPO.

The Turkish lira lost 20 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar and fell a further eight percent in the first weeks of 2017.