Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri: Second Quarter 2021 Results

“STRONG PERFORMANCE PROMPTS GUIDANCE UPGRADE”

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL):

• Please note that all financial data is consolidated and comprises that of Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (the “Company”, or “Turkcell”) and its subsidiaries and associates (together referred to as the “Group”), unless otherwise stated.
• We have four reporting segments:
  • "Turkcell Turkey" which comprises our telecom, digital services and digital business services related businesses in Turkey (as used in our previous releases in periods prior to Q115, this term covered only the mobile businesses). All non-financial data presented in this press release is unconsolidated and comprises Turkcell Turkey only figures, unless otherwise stated. The terms "we", "us", and "our" in this press release refer only to Turkcell Turkey, except in discussions of financial data, where such terms refer to the Group, and except where context otherwise requires.
  • “Turkcell International” which comprises all of our telecom and digital services related businesses outside of Turkey.
  • “Techfin” which comprises all of our financial services businesses.
  • “Other” which mainly comprises our non-group call center and energy businesses, retail channel operations, smart devices management and consumer electronics sales through digital channels and intersegment eliminations.
• In this press release, a year-on-year comparison of our key indicators is provided and figures in parentheses following the operational and financial results for June 30, 2021 refer to the same item as at June 30, 2020. For further details, please refer to our consolidated financial statements and notes as at and for June 30, 2021, which can be accessed via our website in the investor relations section (www.turkcell.com.tr).
• Selected financial information presented in this press release for the second quarter and half year of 2020 and 2021 is based on IFRS figures in TRY terms unless otherwise stated.
• In the tables used in this press release totals may not foot due to rounding differences. The same applies to the calculations in the text.
• Year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter percentage comparisons appearing in this press release reflect mathematical calculation.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Robust financial performance despite the impact of the pandemic:
  • Group revenues up 23.5% with Turkcell Turkey’s strong ARPU and subscriber net add performance, international operations contribution and higher equipment revenues backed by digital channels
  • EBITDA up 22.7% year-on-year leading to an EBITDA margin of 40.5%; EBIT up 25.5% year-on-year resulting in an EBIT margin of 20.2%
  • Net income up 30.6% year-on-year
  • Leverage at 0.9x, despite FX fluctuations; long FX position at US$146 million

• Strong operational momentum continued:
  • Turkcell Turkey subscriber base up by 617 thousand quarterly net additions, highest Q2 net addition performance since Q217; 1.3 million total net additions in the first half of 2021
  • 501 thousand quarterly mobile postpaid net additions; postpaid subscriber base share at 66.2%
  • 28 thousand quarterly prepaid subscriber net additions
  • Mobile ARPU3 growth of 13.7%; fixed residential ARPU growth of 13.2% year-on-year
  • Data usage of 4.5G users at 15.1 GB in Q221
  • The average monthly mobile churn rate was at 1.7% in Q221, the lowest since Q118
  • The average monthly fixed churn rate was at 1.3% in Q221, the lowest since Q212
  • Digital channels’ share in Turkcell Turkey consumer sales (excluding fixed business) at 17.5%; up 6.5pp year-on-year

• We revise our 2021 guidance4. Accordingly, we target revenue growth of ~18%, EBITDA of ~TRY14.3 billion and an operational capex over sales ratio5 of 21% - 22%.

(1) EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See page 16 for the explanation of how we calculate Adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income.
(2) EBIT is a non-GAAP financial measure and is equal to EBITDA minus depreciation and amortization expenses.
(3) Excluding M2M
(4) Please note that this paragraph contains forward looking statements based on our current estimates and expectations regarding market conditions for each of our different businesses. No assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with such estimates and expectations. For a discussion of factors that may affect our results, see our Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2020 filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and in particular, the risk factor section therein.
(5) Excluding license fee

For further details, please refer to our consolidated financial statements and notes as at June 30, 2021 via our website in the investor relations section (www.turkcell.com.tr).

COMMENTS BY CEO, MURAT ERKAN

We have accelerated growth thanks to our successful business model and customer centric approach, and revised up our guidance

We have accelerated our strong growth performance and achieved successful financial and operational results in the second quarter of 2021. Despite the COVID-19 related restrictions during the quarter, our diversified business model with our digital services, our customer-centric approach and our value offerings supported by the entire Turkcell ecosystem have played a significant role in our success.

In this period, our consolidated revenues reached TRY8.5 billion on an annual increase of 23.5% compared to the second quarter of the previous year. We achieved annual growth of 20.6% in the first half of the year. Our growth performance was driven mainly by the increased ARPU and subscriber performance of Turkcell Turkey, and the rising contribution of our Turkcell International business due to our successful performance in Ukraine. Consolidated EBITDA1 was TRY3.5 billion indicating an increase of 22.7%. Our net profit grew by 30.6% to TRY1.1 billion.

Considering our financial performance and our expectations for the second half of the year, we revise our 2021 guidance2 upwards. Accordingly, we increase our revenue growth guidance to around 18% and our EBITDA guidance to around TRY14.3 billion. Due to increased fiber investments and currency fluctuations, we target an operational capex over sales ratio3 of 21-22%.

We continue strong net subscriber additions together with our postpaid subscriber focus

Even though the increased pandemic related measures had a restrictive impact on subscriber mobility in second quarter, we effectively maintained our communication with our customers through our digital channel and maintained our focus on expanding our postpaid mobile subscriber base. The share of the digital channel in our consumer revenues (except our fixed business) rose to 17.5% with an increase of 6.5 point on an annual basis. In this quarter, we increased our postpaid customer base to 22.9 million gaining a net 501 thousand postpaid subscribers. Thus, the share of our postpaid subscriber base within the total mobile base was realized at 66%, 3 points above the second quarter of last year. Mobile blended ARPU (excluding M2M) has reached TRY52.3 on an annual 13.7% rise on the back of the expanding postpaid subscriber base, rising data usage, price adjustments and upsell to higher packages. Thanks to the offerings we created leveraging our analytical capabilities and with our customer-centric approach, we continued improving our customer retention performance. Additionally, as a result of lower subscriber mobility due to pandemic-related restrictions, the average monthly churn rate was realized at 1.7%, the lowest level of the past 3 years.

In the fixed broadband segment, demand remained strong under the prevailing pandemic restrictions. We achieved net 40 thousand fiber subscriber additions in this quarter with our high-speed internet offers that we provide over our fiber network, meeting the quality connection needs of our customers. Our fixed broadband customer base exceeded 2.5 million with our strong subscriber net additions during this quarter.

Thanks to our digital-centric strategy and strong business model, we obtained a net 617 thousand subscribers including TV+ in this period. Additionally, our total net subscriber additions reached 1.3 million in the first half of the year and total number of subscribers of Turkcell Turkey rose to 38.1 million.

Our digital services continue to add value to our customers’ lives

The stand-alone revenues of our digital services business, which includes major brands such as BiP, TV+, lifebox and fizy, reached TRY404 million on an annual increase of 32% in this quarter. BiP, our communication and life platform developed by Turkcell engineers, continued attracting attention not only in Turkey, but also in international markets. BiP’s total downloads exceeded 82 million while 3-month active users were at 26.4 million. We aim at making BiP an application used by an ever-wider audience through cooperation with international operators. Meanwhile, thanks to the rich content of our TV+ service, we gained a net 40 thousand IPTV subscribers during the quarter. Thus, we now offer our TV+ service to 62 out of every 100 fiber subscribers. Our cloud storage service lifebox, which stands out for its secure and smart technologies, has reached a new milestone by exceeding 1 million paid users. We have also taken an important step towards increasing the use of our services on the corporate front by launching our products BiP Meet, lifebox business and fizy business, which we will offer to our customers as part of our B2B business model.

We lead the digital transformation of companies with of our Digital Business Services

The total revenues of Digital Business Services through which we offer solutions for end-to-end digital transformation of our corporate customers grew by 22% on an annual basis to TRY618 million. We contributed to the digital transformation of our customers by signing 678 projects with a total contract value of approximately TRY170 million thanks to the diversified products and services we offer such as data center, cloud technologies, managed services, cyber-security, and internet of things. We have put into practice 1,792 system integration and managed services projects in total to date as of the end of the second quarter. We have a contract value (backlog) of TRY917 million to be realized beyond the second quarter of 2021. Thanks to our data centers that respond to our customers’ rapidly increasing need for data storage and cloud technologies, we hold the leading position in this segment. By offering customizable cloud services over turkcellbulut.com, we ensure that our customers manage their digital transformation processes more efficiently. In this quarter, we continued developing our product and service ecosystem which we offer to our customers by increasing the number of our global business partners to 24. In this quarter, we launched our cybersecurity products “Telco Anti Fraud” and, “Fortigate Firewall” which respond to the security needs of different sectors and “Turkcell RPA” which was developed for the automation of robotic processes.

Paycell stands out with its innovative services

As one of the most important initiatives in Turkey in field of techfin and an innovative payment platform offering an array of solutions to its customers, Paycell again delivered a remarkable performance in this quarter. The 3-month active users of Paycell, which pioneers the digitalization of payment methods, reached 5.5 million, while quarterly mobile payment volume increased to TRY418 million on an annual rise of 94%. The quarterly transaction volume of Paycell card, which enables our customers to experience Paycell on all POS devices in Turkey, quadrupled on an annual basis to TRY301 million. Paycell revenues increased by 78% on an annual basis thanks to our services which change the payment habits of our users, thereby increasing demand. I strongly believe that digital payment services will gradually become widespread thanks to the economic scale of our country, our young population, tech savviness, and supportive regulatory developments. Duly Paycell, supporting the strength of Turkcell Group, is set to sustain its strong momentum in the upcoming quarters.

TOGG continues taking firm steps

Aiming to start production by the end of 2022 at its facility in Gemlik, which is currently under construction, TOGG completed its first body assembly using exclusively domestically manufactured parts this quarter. TOGG was awarded in the “Professional Concept” category at the ‘iF Design Awards 2021’, thus becoming the first Turkish brand to be awarded in the field of mobility. Additionally, in this period, we increased our shareholding in TOGG from 19% to 23% following changes to the shareholding structure. I believe that TOGG, which has already achieved marked success in the field of mobility, will make invaluable contributions to Turkcell’s ecosystem over the coming years.

Make the world yours

Another development of this quarter has been the implementation of our corporate brand transformation as we initiated our communication strategy under the motto: “Make the world yours”. We position all our digital services and solutions as independent brands under the Turkcell umbrella brand within the framework of our strategy of making Turkcell a digital ecosystem brand, beyond being a telecommunication operator. In this period where consumer habits change swiftly, we emphasize the sheer range of digital services we offer to meet customer needs.

We make investments to achieve our sustainability targets

We continue taking significant steps towards our sustainability targets, which are a focal point of our business model. In line with our target of meeting our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030 and becoming a carbon neutral company by 2050, we have signed a share transfer agreement to acquire Boyut Grup Enerji, which owns Izmir Karadag Wind Power Plant. We intend to complete the share transfer of Karadag Wind Energy Power Plant, which has an 18 MW installed capacity and thereby the potential to meet the annual electricity need of approximately 22,500 houses, upon receipt of approval from the respective authorities and fulfillment of various conditions precedent.

As Turkcell Group, by keeping a human dimension and ethical values in the foreground, we have disclosed our Sustainable Governance Principles, which include human rights and environmental policies, aimed at contributing to economic, social and environmental sustainability. We are committed to compliance with the codes of conduct and respect for the environment in all our business processes in accordance with our principles comprising 15 articles that cover our relationship with our employees, customers, business associates, and all our stakeholders.

Granfondo, the world-renowned long-distance road bike race for amateur cyclists, has met with cycling lovers for the first time in Istanbul under the sponsorship of Turkcell. 1,000 amateur cyclists and sport fans participating in the race have contributed to the education scholarship created for the children of those healthcare professionals who succumbed to Covid-19 during the pandemic. Additionally, revenue generated from the recycling of waste electronic devices brought by sport fans to the race area was also added to this education scholarship.

As Turkey’s Turkcell, we use all our means to heal the wounds of the disastrous wildfires that have deeply saddened our country. We have introduced our communication packages, named the “Hero Package,” so as to provide all firefighting teams under the coordination of AFAD uninterrupted and easy communication. We have donated 50 thousand saplings to re-plant our forests damaged in the recent fires. We established an Animal Field Hospital for the treatment of animals harmed by the fire with donations from Turkcell volunteers. Additionally, we will utilize the revenue of opening concert of ‘Turkcell Starry Nights’ for a sapling donation.

We will continue our strong performance

I believe that we will continue our strong performance by offering the best quality communication service to our country, and by continuing to pioneer its digital transformation as we have done throughout this challenging period.

I extend my thanks to all our teammates, mainly our Board of Directors, for ensuring that we continue to advance. I also express gratitude to our customers and business associates for remaining with us on our journey to success.

(1) EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See page 16 for the explanation of how we calculate Adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income.
(2) Please note that this paragraph contains forward looking statements based on our current estimates and expectations regarding market conditions for each of our different businesses. No assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with such estimates and expectations. For a discussion of factors that may affect our results, see our Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2020 filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and in particular, the risk factor section therein.
(3) Excluding license fee

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL REVIEW

Financial Review of Turkcell Group

(1) Excluding depreciation and amortization expenses.
(2) EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See page 16 for the explanation of how we calculate Adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income.
(3) EBIT is a non-GAAP financial measure and is equal to EBITDA minus depreciation and amortization expenses.

Revenue of the Group grew by 23.5% year-on-year in Q221. This growth was driven mainly by the strong ARPU performance of Turkcell Turkey and subscriber base growth. Turkcell International’s strong revenue performance as well as equipment revenues supported by digital channels also contributed to Group revenue growth.

Turkcell Turkey revenues, comprising 76% of Group revenues, rose 18.8% year-on-year to TRY6,505 million (TRY5,474 million).

- Consumer segment revenues grew 16.3% year-on-year on the back of data and digital services usage, rising subscriber base, upsell efforts and price adjustments.
- Corporate segment revenues rose 22.6% supported by the continued momentum of digital business services, which grew 21.6% year-on-year.
- Standalone digital services revenues registered as part of consumer and corporate segments grew 32.1% year-on-year in Q221 supported by the increased number of paid users.
- Wholesale revenues grew 46.2% to TRY379 million (TRY259 million), mainly with the positive impact of currency movements, customer’s data capacity upgrades and increased international carrier traffic.

Turkcell International revenues, comprising 10% of Group revenues, rose 45.4% to TRY840 million (TRY578 million), mainly on the strong performance of Ukrainian operations and positive impact of currency movements.

Techfin segment revenues, comprising 3% of Group revenues, rose 23.9% to TRY242 million (TRY195 million). Growth was driven mainly by the 78% rise in Paycell revenues while finance company’s revenues were stable on a year-on-year basis. Please refer to the Techfin section for details.

Other subsidiaries' revenues, at 11% of Group revenues, which include mainly non-group call center and energy business revenues, and consumer electronics sales revenues rose 42.1% to TRY961 million (TRY676 million). This was driven mainly by increased equipment revenues supported by digital channels.

Cost of revenue (excluding depreciation and amortization) rose to 51.4% (50.5%) as a percentage of revenues in Q221. This was due mainly to the rise in cost of goods sold (1.4pp) despite the decline in other cost items (0.5pp).

Administrative Expenses increased to 2.6% (2.4%) as a percentage of revenues in Q221.

Selling and Marketing Expenses increased to 4.8% (4.7%) as a percentage of revenues in Q221. This was driven mainly by the increase in marketing expenses (0.3pp), despite the decline in selling expenses (0.2pp) as a percentage of revenues.

Net impairment losses on financial and contract assets declined to 0.6% (1.5%) as a percentage of revenues in Q221 mainly on improved collection performance.

EBITDA1 rose by 22.7% year-on-year in Q221 leading to an EBITDA margin of 40.5% (40.8%).

- Turkcell Turkey’s EBITDA rose 19.2% year-on-year to TRY2,869 million (TRY2,407 million) leading to an EBITDA margin of 44.1% (44.0%).
- Turkcell International EBITDA grew 48.9% year-on-year to TRY405 million (TRY272 million) with an EBITDA margin of 48.2% (47.0%).
- Techfin segment EBITDA rose 31.4% to TRY135 million (TRY103 million) with an EBITDA margin of 56.0% (52.8%).
- The EBITDA of other subsidiaries stood at TRY57 million (TRY43 million).

Depreciation and amortization expenses increased 20.1% year-on-year in Q221.

Net finance expense increased to TRY565 million (TRY234 million) in Q221. Despite higher interest income on time deposits, this was driven by the fair value change of short term fx swap transactions executed to generate TRY funding and higher interest expense relating to financing of working capital.

See Appendix A for details of net foreign exchange gain and loss.

Income tax expense: The current tax expense of TRY224 million was more than offset by TRY460 million deferred tax income reported in Q221.

Please note that in Q221, we made use of the right introduced by Article 11 of the Law No. 7326, which allows the revaluation of properties and depreciable economic assets under certain conditions. As per the law, the respective assets can be revalued with PPI until the year-end and a 2% tax is applied for the revaluation difference. For revalued assets, the valuation difference can be depreciated and written-off as an expense. This resulted in a positive impact on deferred tax asset reported in Q221. Please refer to our consolidated financial statements and notes as at June 30, 2021 for details.

Net income of the Group rose 30.6% to TRY1,113 million (TRY852 million) in Q221 driven mainly by strong operational profitability despite the higher net finance expense registered in Q221.

As per our announcement dated August 7, 2021, our Company was imposed tax assessment in relation to the tax investigation that was conducted with respect to Special Communication Tax for 2017 and with respect to Special Communication Tax, Value Added Tax and Corporate Tax for 2018. We also disclosed that we would benefit from restructuring provisions as per the Law No. 7326 for this tax assessment and the process would be completed upon payment of TRY258 million by our Company on September 30, 2021. The impact of this tax restructuring and various other cost items with one-off nature was balanced by the positive deferred tax income impact resulting from asset revaluation, which was explained above.

Total cash & debt: Consolidated cash as of June 30, 2021 decreased to TRY12,443 million from TRY13,467 million as of March 31, 2021 due mainly to the first installment payment of the dividend and debt repayments. Excluding FX swap transactions, 87% of our cash is in US$, 9% in EUR, and 3% in TRY.

(1) EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See page 16 for the explanation of how we calculate adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income

Consolidated debt as of June 30, 2021 decreased to TRY24,077 million from TRY24,896 million as of March 31, 2021 due to mainly debt repayments despite the impact of currency movements. Please note that TRY2,172 million of our consolidated debt is comprised of lease obligations.

Consolidated debt breakdown excluding lease obligations:

- Turkcell Turkey’s debt was at TRY19,775 million, of which TRY12,019 million (US$1,381 million) was denominated in US$, TRY6,586 million (EUR635 million) in EUR, TRY516 million (CNY385 million) in CNY, and the remaining TRY653 million in TRY.
- The finance company had a debt balance of TRY1,001 million, of which TRY247 million (US$28 million) was denominated in US$, and TRY495 million (EUR48 million) in EUR with the remaining TRY259 million in TRY.
- The debt balance of lifecell was TRY1,130 million, fully denominated in UAH.

TRY1,070 million of lease obligations is denominated in TRY, TRY64 million (US$7 million) in US$, TRY233 million (EUR22 million) in EUR, and the remaining balance in other local currencies (Please note that the figures in parentheses refer to US$ or EUR equivalents).

Net debt as of June 30, 2021 was at TRY11,635 million with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.9 times. Excluding finance company consumer loans, our telco only net debt was at TRY9,861 million with a leverage of 0.8 times.

Turkcell Group had a long FX position of US$146 million as at the end of second quarter. (Please note that this figure takes advance payments into account).

Capital expenditures: Capital expenditures, including non-operational items, amounted to TRY2,713 million in Q221. In Q221 and H121, operational capital expenditures (excluding license fees) at the Group level were at 24.5% and 21.8% of total revenues, respectively.

(1) Superbox subscribers are included in mobile subscribers.
(2) Churn figures represent average monthly churn figures for the respective quarters.
(3) In Q117, our churn policy was revised to extend from 9 months to 12 months (the period at the end of which we disconnect prepaid subscribers who have not topped up above TRY10). Additionally, under our revised policy, prepaid customers who last topped up before March is disconnected at the latest by year-end. As a regulatory requirement, we started to disconnect prepaid lines in accordance with the new ICTA regulation, which requires deactivation of prepaid lines which lack residency documents by the 6th month of subscription starting from 2019. Furthermore, as required by the ICTA, the line of a deceased customer should either be transferred to a successor/another user or terminated. Lines, which are not transferred or terminated, are to be disconnected at the end of seven months.
(4) We have historically recorded all TV-related revenue under Turkcell Superonline and presented the related ARPU under fixed residential ARPU. As previously announced, our TV business has become a separate standalone subsidiary. In order to reflect this change in our organization, we decided to shift mobile OTT TV ARPU from fixed residential ARPU into mobile ARPU starting from Q320. We note that mobile TV revenues are generated by mobile subscribers. IPTV revenues will continue to be recorded under Turkcell Superonline and included under residential fixed ARPU. Moreover, starting from Q121, as a consequence of the change in reportable segments, commission revenues resulting from devices and accessories sales have been excluded from the mobile ARPU of Turkcell Turkey since these commissions are now reported under the Other segment.

We continued our strong customer net addition performance in Q221. We grew our subscriber base in Turkcell Turkey registering 617 thousand net quarterly additions, reaching 38.1 million in total. We achieved a total of 1.3 million net additions in the first half of the year. This was driven by our customer-oriented approach, rich value proposition to our customers and retention focus supported by our data analytics capabilities.

On the mobile front, our subscriber base reached 34.6 million on 530 thousand quarterly net additions in Q221. Our postpaid subscribers grew on 501 thousand net quarterly additions. Accordingly, our postpaid subscribers reached 66.2% (63.5%) of our mobile subscriber base as at the end of Q221.

On the fixed front, our subscriber base exceeded 2.5 million on 46 thousand quarterly net annual additions. We registered 40 thousand quarterly net additions to our fiber subscribers. Superbox, our fixed wireless access product, reached 626 thousand subscribers on 11 thousand quarterly net additions in Q221. Our cable subscribers were at 62 thousand by the end of the quarter. Meanwhile, our IPTV subscribers rose to 961 thousand on 40 thousand quarterly net additions. Accordingly, our IPTV product reached 62% penetration among fiber residential subscribers.

The average monthly mobile churn rate declined to 1.7% in Q221, which is the lowest print since Q118. This was driven by our customer-oriented approach, offerings with rich value propositions and proactive retention actions based on analytical models. Lower mobility due to pandemic restrictions, which led to lower portability among operators, also had a positive impact on churn rate. The average monthly fixed churn rate declined to 1.3%, the lowest since Q212. This performance was driven mainly by proactive retention offers.

Our mobile ARPU (excluding M2M) rose 13.7% year-on-year in Q221 on the back of a larger postpaid subscriber base, upsell efforts and price adjustments, as well as increased data usage.

Our residential fiber ARPU growth was 11.2% year-on-year, driven mainly by upsell efforts to faster speed offers and increased IPTV penetration.

Average monthly mobile data usage per user rose 14.5% year-on-year to 13.4 GB with the increasing number and data consumption of 4.5G users. Accordingly, the average mobile data usage of 4.5G users reached 15.1 GB in Q221.

Total smartphone penetration on our network reached 84% in Q221 on a 5.0pp year-on-year increase. 92% of those smartphones were 4.5G compatible. The number of 4.5G subscriptions reached 33.0 million, while only 70% of these subscriptions had 4.5G compatible smartphones as at the end of Q221.

TURKCELL INTERNATIONAL

(1) Since July 10, 2015, we hold a 100% stake in lifecell.

lifecell (Ukraine) registered a robust financial performance in Q221. lifecell revenues rose by 26.4% year-on-year in local currency terms on the back of strong ARPU performance, driven mainly by increased mobile data revenues, and subscriber base growth. Meanwhile, lifecell’s EBITDA rose 28.5% year-on-year, which led to an EBITDA margin of 56.1%. This was mainly the result of a strong revenue growth performance. Solid operational performance allowed lifecell to sustain its positive net income performance in Q221.

lifecell revenues in TRY terms rose 53.0% year-on-year in Q221 reflecting strong operational performance as well as the positive impact of currency movements. lifecell’s EBITDA in TRY terms grew by 55.7% leading to an EBITDA margin of 56.1%.

(2) We may occasionally offer campaigns and tariff schemes that have an active subscriber life differing from the one that we normally use to deactivate subscribers and calculate churn.
(3) Active subscribers are those who in the past three months made a revenue generating activity.

lifecell’s three-month active subscriber base rose to 8.4 million on the back of customer retention focus, regional offers and rich content packages. lifecell continued its strong ARPU performance in Q221. Accordingly, the ARPU of its 3-month active users grew 16.5% year-over-year on the back of increased mobile data consumption.

lifecell continued to penetrate its 4.5G services within its customer base in Q221. The 3-month active 4.5G subscriber base expanded by 49% year-on-year to 69% of total data users as at the end of Q221. The growing share of the 4.5G subscriber base continued to support the data consumption increase. Accordingly, average monthly data consumption per user increased by 25% year-on-year in Q221. Meanwhile, lifecell continued its leadership of the Ukrainian market in smartphone penetration, which had reached 82.3% as of the end of Q221.

In line with Turkcell’s global digital services strategy, lifecell maintained its focus on increasing the penetration of its digital services within its customer base. In Q221, lifecell introduced a game-based education service for kids. lifecell also launched the Smartbook service, which is a library of bestsellers in summary format.

(1) BeST, in which we hold an 80% stake, has operated in Belarus since July 2008.

BeST revenues grew 13.8% year-on-year in Q221 in local currency terms, driven mainly by increase in voice revenues and growth in mobile data revenues with the rising penetration of 4G subscribers. Messaging revenues also contributed to topline revenue growth. BeST’s EBITDA grew 25.0% year-on-year resulting in an EBITDA margin of 25.5% on 2.2pp improvement driven mainly by cost control measures. BeST’s revenues in TRY terms grew by 34.0% year-on-year in Q221, while its EBITDA margin was at 25.6%.

BeST continued to expand its 4G network and its 4G subscribers in Q221. In Q221, BeST launched LTE800 services over beCloud’s network in Mogilev and Minsk, which enables higher coverage and improves customer satisfaction. All these efforts helped BeST to lead the market in terms of 4G geographical coverage and increase the penetration of its 4G subscribers. Accordingly, 4G users reached 68% of the 3-month active subscriber base, which continued to support mobile data consumption and digital services usage. In Q221, the average monthly data consumption of subscribers rose by 25% year-over-year to 13.2GB.

BeST continued to increase the penetration of its digital services which supports ARPU growth and customer loyalty. Accordingly, 34% of 3-month active subscribers use at least one digital service.

(2) Kuzey Kibris Turkcell, in which we hold a 100% stake, has operated in Northern Cyprus since 1999

Kuzey Kibris Turkcell revenues grew 36.5% year-on-year in Q221, driven mainly by increased equipment sales and the rise in data and voice revenues. The EBITDA of Kuzey Kibris Turkcell rose 36.9% year-on-year on the back of strong revenue growth leading to an EBITDA margin of 36.6%.

TECHFIN

Paycell has seen another quarter of robust financial results. This strong performance resulted mainly from the demand for digital payment services that increased rapidly in a period of changing payment habits. In line with the increasing demand, Paycell reported increasing volumes for its mobile payment solutions, particularly for its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) product. Accordingly, the quarterly transaction volume of BNPL (non-group) rose 94% to TRY418 million. Meanwhile, Paycell card transactions more than quadrupled year-on-year to TRY301 million. Overall, the total transaction volume (including group and non-group) reached TRY2.5 billion for the quarter with the increase in active users and increased usage. The number of Paycell’s 3-month active users increased to 5.5 million as at the end of Q221. This was driven mainly by the rise in digital content consumption and functionality of the Paycell application.

Increasing transaction volumes together with the rise in the number of customers allowed Paycell to register solid revenue growth of 77.8% year-on year. Paycell’s EBITDA rose 84.4% year-on-year leading to an EBITDA margin of 44.3%. Paycell’s net income rose 55.7% to TRY29.9 million in Q221, mainly due to strong operational performance.

Financell registered a stable revenue performance on a year-on-year basis. This was mainly due to the slow-down in loan portfolio contraction and a slightly higher average interest rate on the loan portfolio compared to the same period of the last year. Meanwhile, Financell reported EBITDA growth of 15.0% year-on-year, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 65.9% on an 8.9pp improvement. This was driven mainly by the successful collection performance, the customer portfolio improvement with better credit scoring and the sale of doubtful receivables which led to an improvement in bad debt expenses. Net income increased 43.8% year-on-year driven mainly by better operational performance and lower FX loss after hedging.

Financell’s loan portfolio was at TRY1.8 million in Q221 and Q220. The installment limitation on consumer loans for telecom devices still limit the growth of the loan portfolio. Moreover, Financell’s cost of risk declined to 0.2% from 1.0% in Q121, due mainly to a successful collection performance and customer portfolio improvement. Please also note that 83% of the loans granted by Financell over the past years are covered by an insurance product. Meanwhile, Financell reached 1.3 million active customers as at the end of the second quarter. Accordingly, Financell’s market share for loans granted in Turkey under TRY5 thousand was 20%.

Turkcell Group Subscribers

Turkcell Group registered subscribers amounted to approximately 49.6 million as of June 30, 2021. This figure is calculated by taking the number of subscribers of Turkcell Turkey, and of each of our subsidiaries. It includes the total number of mobile, fiber, ADSL, cable and IPTV subscribers of Turkcell Turkey, and the mobile subscribers of lifecell and BeST, as well as those of Kuzey Kibris Turkcell.

(1) Superbox subscribers are included in mobile subscribers.
(2) Subscribers to more than one service are counted separately for each service.

OVERVIEW OF THE MACROECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

The foreign exchange rates used in our financial reporting, along with certain macroeconomic indicators, are set out below.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASUREMENTS: We believe Adjusted EBITDA, among other measures, facilitates performance comparisons from period to period and management decision making. It also facilitates performance comparisons from company to company. Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure eliminates potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense), tax positions (such as the impact of changes in effective tax rates on periods or companies) and the age and book depreciation of tangible assets (affecting relative depreciation expense). We also present Adjusted EBITDA because we believe it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in evaluating the performance of other mobile operators in the telecommunications industry in Europe, many of which present Adjusted EBITDA when reporting their results.

Our Adjusted EBITDA definition includes Revenue, Cost of Revenue excluding depreciation and amortization, Selling and Marketing expenses, Administrative expenses and Net impairment losses on financial and contract assets, but excludes translation gain/(loss), finance income, finance expense, share of profit of equity accounted investees, gain on sale of investments, minority interest and other income/(expense).

Nevertheless, Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation from, or as a substitute for analysis of our results of operations, as reported under IFRS. The following table provides a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA, as calculated using financial data prepared in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB, to net profit, which we believe is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB.

NOTICE: This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Safe Harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This includes, in particular, our targets for revenue, EBITDA and capex for 2021. More generally, all statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release, including, without limitation, certain statements regarding the launch of new businesses, our operations, financial position and business strategy may constitute forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, among others, "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "believe", "continue" and “guidance”.

Although Turkcell believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable at this time, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to these cautionary statements. For a discussion of certain factors that may affect the outcome of such forward looking statements, see our Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2020 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and in particular the risk factor section therein. We undertake no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The Company makes no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this press release, which remains subject to verification, completion and change. No responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by the Company or any of its subsidiaries, board members, officers, employees or agents as to or in relation to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this press release or any other written or oral information made available to any interested party or its advisers.

ABOUT TURKCELL: Turkcell is a digital operator headquartered in Turkey, serving its customers with its unique portfolio of digital services along with voice, messaging, data and IPTV services on its mobile and fixed networks. Turkcell Group companies operate in 4 countries – Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, and Northern Cyprus. Turkcell launched LTE services in its home country on April 1st, 2016, employing LTE-Advanced and 3 carrier aggregation technologies in 81 cities. Turkcell offers up to 10 Gbps fiber internet speed with its FTTH services. Turkcell Group reported TRY8.5 billion revenue in Q221 with total assets of TRY55.9 billion as of June 30, 2021. It has been listed on the NYSE and the BIST since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more at www.turkcell.com.tr.

Appendix A – Tables

Table: Net foreign exchange gain and loss details

Table: Income tax expense details

(*) Please refer to the notes on reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial measures on page 16
For further details, please refer to our consolidated financial statements and notes as at 30 June 2021 on our web site

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