Vodafone Group offered the highest bid of £3.81 billion in an auction today to buy Turkey's second-largest mobile telephone company.
Vodafone outbid Kuwait's MTC Telecommunications in the closely fought open auction for Telsim.
Telsim, which holds about 25 per cent of the Turkish market, is estimated to have close to 10 million customers, and the Turkish government had previously estimated its value at £2.3 billion.
Its sale to Vodafone is subject to government approval.
The nation's second-largest mobile phone operator after Turkcell was formerly owned by the Uzan family. The government took over Telsim, along with 200 other Uzan companies, to collect debts stemming from the failure of the family's flagship bank, Imar.
Telsim's sale had been held up until now because the company was embroiled in a legal case against Motorola and Nokia, which jointly sued the Uzans in 2001, alleging they borrowed $2.7 billion to build a next-generation wireless network with no intention of repaying the money.
Both Motorola and Nokia reached a settlement with the Turkish government this year and part of the proceeds from the sale will go to the two companies.
AP