Istanbul-listed Turkcell obtains €30mn loan from Bank of China for solar investments

Turkcell (TCELL), controlled by Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund (TWF/TVF), has obtained a €30mn five-year loan from Bank of China (Shanghai/601988), according to a statement from the telco.

The loan has a one-year grace period and Turkcell will use the facility to finance its solar power plant investments.

Turkcell aims to draw 65% of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2026. It plans to reach 100% by 2030 and become net carbon neutral by 2050.

In 2021, Turkcell bought the 18-MW Karadag wind power plant in Cesme town of Izmir province on Turkey’s Aegean coast for $30mn.

It has so far installed photovoltaic (PV) solar panel modules at 735 base stations. Turkcell has a total of 30,500 base stations.

The company plans to invest $240mn to reach an installed solar capacity of 300 MW within three years.

Turkcell Enerji, operating under the Enerjicell brand, serves individual and corporate customers.

At end-June, there were 289 active wind plants in Turkey with a combined capacity of 14 GW, while a total of 171 wind plants with a capacity of 11 GW were pre-licence.

There were 38 active solar plants with a capacity of 2 GW and an additional 190 plants with a combined capacity of 9 GW that were pre-licence.

Turkey had a combined capacity of 110 GW while pre-licences had been issued for an additional 23 GW of capacity.

At end-March, Turkcell remained the largest mobile operator in Turkey with 37mn customers, followed by Vodafone (London/VOD) with 28mn and Turk Telekom (TTKOM), controlled by Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund (TWF/TVF), with 26mn.

Turkcell has a B/Negative, five notches below investment grade, from Fitch Ratings and also a B/Negative from Standard and Poor’s (S&P) in line with Turkey’s sovereign ratings.