Turkey privatisations: back on track

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.

Turkey responds to Greece's note verbale to UN by issuing its own

Ekathimerini

Turkey has forwarded a note verbale to the United Nations in response to a Greek one sent to the international organization on February 20, the Greek Foreign Ministry announced late on Tuesday.

According to the Greek Foreign Ministry, the Turkish verbal note challenges the right of the Greek islands to a continental shelf and exclusive economic zone, in violation of article 121 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Athens had submitted a verbal note to the UN notifying international officials of Turkey’s granting of exploration permits for areas deemed to cover the Greek continental shelf.

At the time Turkey’s Foreign Ministry had issued a statement defending its decision, noting that the permits that had been issued since 2007 to the state-owned oil company TRAO concerned territories within boundaries of the Turkish continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean.