Foreign partner seeks purchaser for Digiturk

ISTANBUL

TMSF Chairman Şakir Ercan Gül speaks to Anatolia news agency. AA photo

Turkey’s state fund, which seized 12 companies of indebted conglomerate Çukurova group last week, has said the group’s foreign partner in digital broadcast platform Digiturk is in talks with potential buyers.

“We will be in talks with Digiturk’s foreign partner over either the sale of its [Çukurova’s] stakes in the company or the sale of the firm jointly,” Turkey’s Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) Chairman Şakir Ercan Gül told broadcaster BloombergHT.

Çukurova group owns a 53 percent stake in Digiturk, the broadcaster of Turkey’s football league, while Providence Equity Partners holds 47 percent.

Providence had already kicked off the talks with potential buyers, Gül said, adding that if the firm were to finalize the talks, Digiturk shares might be sold with the consultancy of TMSF.

TMSF had confiscated Digiturk as one of 10 companies of the Çukurova group seized in a second wave on May 24, after seizure of its motor company BMC, which had been facing financial difficulties and delivery problems, and some other media assets, on May 17.