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TURKEY OPTS FOR 2ND HIGHEST BID FOR PETKIM
Agence France Presse
09 Nov 07
ANKARA: Turkey's Competition Board has approved the sale of state-run
petrochemicals company Petkim to the second highest bidder in a July
tender, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.
A consortium of the Azerbaijani oil company Socar, Turkey's Turcas
and Saudi-based Injaz Projects had made the second highest bid of
2.04 billion dollars (1.39 billion euros) for a 51-percent stake in
the company.
The board did not give a reason as to why the tender was not awarded
to the highest bidder, a consortium of the Kazakh Caspi Neft and
Eurasia companies, the Russian bank Troika Dialogue and a number of
Kazakh investors, which offered 2.05 billion dollars.
Turkish newspapers reported after the tender that 65 percent of
Troika Dialogue's shares belonged to a major Russian-Armenian investor
described as a chief financer of the Armenian diaspora.
Armenians have for years been pushing for the recognition as genocide
of the mass killings of their kinsmen during World War I under the
Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey's predecessor. Ankara categorically
rejects the genocide label.
The Competition Board's decision is subject to approval by the
Privatisation Board for the takeover to be finalized.
Turkey held a first tender for 88.86 percent of Petkim in June 2003,
which the controversial business family Uzan won with a bid of 605
million dollars.
But the deal was cancelled two months later when the
financially-strapped Uzans failed to fulfill required conditions.
A second tender in August 2003 failed for lack of investor interest. In
April 2005, 34.5 percent of the company's shares were sold to Turkish
and foreign investors in a public offering worth 267 million dollars.
About 39 percent of Petkim shares are currently traded on the Istanbul
stock exchange.
Petkim controls one-third of the petrochemical market in Turkey and
employs about 4,000 people.
It posted a net profit of 41 million dollars in 2006.
Privatisation is a key element in Turkey's economic programme, backed
by a 10-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund,
as it recovers from two severe financial crises in 1999 and 2001.
Agence France Presse
09 Nov 07
ANKARA: Turkey's Competition Board has approved the sale of state-run
petrochemicals company Petkim to the second highest bidder in a July
tender, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.
A consortium of the Azerbaijani oil company Socar, Turkey's Turcas
and Saudi-based Injaz Projects had made the second highest bid of
2.04 billion dollars (1.39 billion euros) for a 51-percent stake in
the company.
The board did not give a reason as to why the tender was not awarded
to the highest bidder, a consortium of the Kazakh Caspi Neft and
Eurasia companies, the Russian bank Troika Dialogue and a number of
Kazakh investors, which offered 2.05 billion dollars.
Turkish newspapers reported after the tender that 65 percent of
Troika Dialogue's shares belonged to a major Russian-Armenian investor
described as a chief financer of the Armenian diaspora.
Armenians have for years been pushing for the recognition as genocide
of the mass killings of their kinsmen during World War I under the
Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey's predecessor. Ankara categorically
rejects the genocide label.
The Competition Board's decision is subject to approval by the
Privatisation Board for the takeover to be finalized.
Turkey held a first tender for 88.86 percent of Petkim in June 2003,
which the controversial business family Uzan won with a bid of 605
million dollars.
But the deal was cancelled two months later when the
financially-strapped Uzans failed to fulfill required conditions.
A second tender in August 2003 failed for lack of investor interest. In
April 2005, 34.5 percent of the company's shares were sold to Turkish
and foreign investors in a public offering worth 267 million dollars.
About 39 percent of Petkim shares are currently traded on the Istanbul
stock exchange.
Petkim controls one-third of the petrochemical market in Turkey and
employs about 4,000 people.
It posted a net profit of 41 million dollars in 2006.
Privatisation is a key element in Turkey's economic programme, backed
by a 10-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund,
as it recovers from two severe financial crises in 1999 and 2001.