South Africa-based MTN said Turkish operator Turkcell has informed it that it will be filing a claim in a US court concerning Irancell, in which MTN has a 49 percent stake. The state-owned Iran Electronic Development Company owns the other 51 percent. Turkcell submitted a bid for Iran's second mobile network licence in 2005 but lost out to Irancell. MTN said it "understands" that Turkcell's claim will allege that MTN sought to induce the Iranian government to award the second GSM licence to MTN rather than to Turkcell by making "improper payments" to an Iranian and a South African government official. It will also allege that MTN encouraged the South African government to take a favourable position towards Iran's civil nuclear power development programme at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in November 2005, and that MTN enlisted South African government support for the provision of military equipment to Iran, the MTN statement said. MTN said it has established a committee consisting of non-executive directors to consider the allegations, chaired by Lord Leonard Hoffmann, an internationally renowned jurist. MTN chairman Cyril Ramaphosa promised a "measured and authoritative" response. MTN warned that Turkcell has intimated a range of putative claim amounts, the nominal value of which would be material if they were formally asserted. However, it added that no claim has been filed and no papers served yet.
