by David O'Byrne | Financial Times
Turkey’s ambitious privatisation programme scored another significant
success Friday with the successful sale of four more of the country’s regional
power distribution companies for a total of $3.46bn.
The sale of the four was completed after more than six hours of open
bidding between 16 companies.
The two largest power distributor on the auction block – Toroslar EDAS
which distributes in the Adana region and AY EDAS which distributes on the
Asian side of Istanbul – were sold for $1.7bn and $1.2bn respectively to
Enerjisa, a joint venture between Turkey’s Sabanci Holding and Germany’s E.ON.
The auction win comes just four months after E.ON bought
out the 50 per cent stake in Enerjisa previously held by
Austrian power group Verbund.
Speaking to reporters, Selahattin Hakman, head of Sabanci’s energy arm,
said Enerjisa’s ambitions had broadened since the arrival of E.ON.
Enerjisa already owns Baskent EDAS which distributes power in Ankara and
now holds close to the 30 per cent maximum share any individual company can
hold in the Turkish power distribution sector.
Of the other two regional distributors that were also on auction, Dicle
EDAS which distributes in the Diyarbakir region was sold to the Iskaya-Dogu
consortium for $387m and Vangolu EDAS which distributes in the Van region was
sold to the Turkerler construction group for $118m.
