Tycoon maintains his grip on Turkcell One of Turkey's richest men is set to maintain his control over Turkcell, the country's leading mobile group, after a regulator's ruling that forestalls any immediate change to the company's board. Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, whose wealth Forbes estimates at $2.9bn, has long been involved in a battle with Alfa Group of Russia and TeliaSonera, the Nordic telecoms group, which like Cukurova, Mr Karamehmet's holding company, are big Turkcell shareholders. The latest twist, like previous episodes in the years-long saga, highlights the role of the government regulator. For more than a year Alfa and TeliaSonera have sought changes to the Turkcell board. In particular they want to eject Colin Williams, the company's chairman, who they allege is too close to Mr Karamehmet. Cukurova says that Mr Williams has behaved entirely appropriately as the seven person board's only independent member. Alfa and TeliaSonera had both hoped that an annual meeting this week would resolve the deadlock, by deciding the appointment of three independent board members as required by new corporate governance rules. But in a ruling late last week, the country's Capital Markets Board said that it could not accept a proposed long list of candidates to be independent board members, in light of Turkcell's shareholders" failure to agree a shortlist among themselves. The decision is at least the third time regulatory or government action has effectively delayed a settlement of the board fight and means that the dispute is now less likely to be resolved before a court ruling later this year over whether Cukurova or Alfa has the right to a key shareholding. TeliaSonera and Alfa have blocked the payment of Turkcell's dividend as the dispute has continued. "We have to see whether it is true the CMB has delayed the process and to look into the reasons for that," said Cecilia Edstrom, senior vice-president at TeliaSonera. We had hoped that by the end of June we would be able to have elected independent board members...The longer the process the worse it is for Turkcell. Other parties in the dispute declined to comment. While Mr Karamehmet may not be a natural ally of Turkey's Islamist-rooted government, Alfa and TeliaSonera have long been focused on sensitivities about the national ownership of Turkcell, arguing that the company will remain a Turkish group no matter what changes occur in its ownership. Mr Karamehmet has also received a fillip from the UK Privy Council, which will be the final arbiter in the ownership dispute between Alfa and Cukurova. In a decision in February reaffirmed by a judgment in May, the Privy Council overturned an order by a Court in the British Virgin Islands that had held that Cukurova had to pay $1.4bn into court to maintain its controlling stake in Turkcell. The Privy Council will now decide on the substance of the case over the controlling shareholding in Turkcell, with a hearing scheduled for October and a ruling possible later in the year. TeliaSonera is separately pursuing Cukurova for $932m in damages, plus interest, awarded to it last year by the arbitration tribunal of the Geneva based International Chamber of Commerce