Competition board approves sale of Petkim to second runner-up of auction
Published November 12th, 2007
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.
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 (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.
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 financier of the Armenian diaspora.
In mid-October the Privatization Administration put aside TransCentral-Asia Group, having an Armenian partner, in the auction to privatize Petrochemical Holding Co. (Petkim) although this consortium made the highest bid for 51 percent of Petkim’s shares. TransCentralAsia Petrochemical Holding consortium submitted the highest offer with 2,050 million USD in the auction, and won the auction.
The Competition Board’s decision is subject to approval by the Privatization Board for the takeover to be finalized.
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