İşkaya wins Dicle tender with $387-million bid

ISTANBUL

AA Photo

The İşkaya Doğu joint venture has placed the highest bid for the privatization of Dicle Elektrik, the electricity distributor operating in Turkey’s southeastern provinces, with a $387-million proposal.

Final negotiations on the tender, composed of 100 percent of Dicle Elektrik shares, took place this morning with a starting price of $226 million and a minimum increment amount of $1 million.

After the elimination of one of Turkey’s largest construction firms, Limak, in the first round, and the Fine Energy-Fina Port joint venture in the second round, four companies were short-listed for the auction process, in which the İşkaya Doğu joint venture group made the top bid.

Dicle Elektrik provides electricity for 1 million subscribers living in the southeastern cities of Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Batman, Siirt and Şırnak.

In a 2010 privatization tender for the grid, Karavil-Ceylan İnşaat won with a $228-million bid, but due to disputes aroused by high loss and leakage rates in the region – the highest in Turkey – the transfer of rights was canceled.