Turkcell profits almost quadruple in Q3

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Net profits of Turkish mobile network giant Turkcell rose to 601 million Turkish liras (around $159.8 million) in the third quarter of 2017, shooting up 269.4 percent year-on-year, the company announced Thursday.

Net profits in Q3 last year totaled 163 million Turkish liras ($43.3 million), making the new numbers nearly quadruple that.

Total revenues climbed 25.7 percent to 4.59 billion liras ($1.22 billion) in the period, Turkcell said in a press release.

The company’s profit rise is based on core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) that reached 1.63 billion liras ($433.4 million), corresponding to a 34.1 percent rise, the company added.

The group's revenue and EBITDA also climbed 26.6 percent to 12.96 billion liras ($3.44 billion) and 38.2 percent to 4.48 billion liras ($1.19 billion) in the first 9 months of 2017, respectively.

Turkcell's net income in this period reached 1.76 billion liras ($468 million), up 54.5 percent.

"During the quarter, we added 473,000 net mobile subscribers" to reach at total of 34.6 million, said Turkcell CEO Kaan Terzioglu.

Turkcell's new Yaani search engine announced on Wednesday will also make a difference for consumers and corporations, he stated.

"With this, Turkey now has its own search engine," he said.

Turkcell spearheaded GSM-based mobile communication in Turkey when it started operations in 1994.

Since then, it has continuously expanded its services based on mobile audio and data communication.