Türk Telekom opens TL 2.5 billion buyback as TTNET plans TL 7.5 billion of sukuk

Türk Telekom has started a new share buyback programme of up to TL 2.5 billion, and its wholly owned subsidiary TTNET A.Ş. has approved the issue of up to TL 7.5 billion of Turkish lira lease certificates, or sukuk, according to regulatory disclosures published since 14 September.

The buyback was authorised by a board resolution dated 11 September and disclosed on 14 September. It allows the company to spend up to TL 2,500,000,000 on buying back up to 2,000,000,000 of its own shares, with a nominal value of TL 20,000,000, over a period of up to three years, according to the disclosure. The board said the aim was "to support healthy pricing in the capital markets for our Company's shares". The chief executive and chief financial officer are jointly authorised to carry out the purchases, and shareholders will be informed at the next general assembly.

The previous programme, launched by the board on 8 February 2023, ended the same day because its three-year validity period had expired, a separate notice says.

First purchases

The company bought 375,000 shares on 23 September, 365,000 on 25 September and 474,000 on 29 September under the new programme, according to three disclosures (23 September, 25 September, 29 September). That is 1,214,000 shares across the three days. After the last purchase the company held 1,714,000 TTKOM shares, or 0.0489 per cent of its share capital. The notices do not give prices or amounts spent, and the 23 September notice implies that 500,000 shares were already held before that day's purchase.

At that pace the programme is small against its ceiling. The 1,714,000 shares held at the end of September are less than 0.1 per cent of the 2 billion shares the board has authorised, on the company's own figures.

Sukuk at home and abroad

TTNET's board resolved on 14 September that an asset leasing company it authorises will issue the TL 7,500,000,000 of lease certificates, with TTNET as the fund user, in maturities of up to five years, according to the disclosure. They would be sold in one or more tranches as private placements or to qualified investors in the domestic market, without a public offering, subject to capital markets legislation.

The TTNET programme is larger and longer-dated than the one approved ten days later by its main rival. Turkcell's board resolved on 24 September that its financing subsidiary may issue up to TRY 6 billion of domestic lease certificates with maturities of up to 12 months, subject to Capital Markets Board approval, according to a Turkcell announcement. Neither company has disclosed pricing for the planned issues.

The domestic programme sits alongside a larger overseas plan. On 16 July the Türk Telekom board resolved to issue foreign currency or lira lease certificates of up to USD 1 billion, or its equivalent, abroad within one year of Capital Markets Board approval, through an asset leasing company that had yet to be established, according to a July disclosure. No sale under that resolution appears in the disclosures published up to 17 October.

The group has used the structure before. In October 2025 its group company TT Varlık Kiralama A.Ş. sold USD 600 million of five-year lease certificates to qualified investors abroad at a coupon of 6.50 per cent, redeemable on 30 October 2030 and listed on Euronext Dublin, according to a disclosure dated 28 October 2025.

Türk Telekom also paid the coupon on its green bond with ISIN XS3194824747 on 7 October, according to a notice that gives no amount. Its third-quarter results are the next scheduled disclosure that would show how much has been spent on the buyback and whether any of the lease certificate programmes has been used.