Partners in Turkey’s Gebze-İzmir road project consider stake sale

ISTANBUL

Osmangazi Bridge built over the Gulf of İzmit carries the O-5 from the Kocaeli province to the province of Yalova.

Consortium partners of the Otoyol Yatırım ve İşletme that is building the Gebze-Orhangazi-İzmir highway are considering selling their stakes in the project, a senior executive from Otoyol Yatırım has said.

“Our company has launched a process to select an international bank/institution to advice on a possible stake sale,” Yavuz Batum said in a statement.

“If the partners find it appropriate they may sell some stake,” he added, without elaborating.

The Gebze-Orhangazi-İzmir project, which is estimated to cost $7.3 billion, will be completed within 2019, according to Batum.

He also said that the stake sale in such a large project would take some time.

“The first stage in this process is to determine the value of the project and identify the potential buyers. In the next phase, our partners may sell some of the stake,” Bayum explained.

Italian Astaldi holds an 18 percent stake in the joint venture, while Turkish companies Nurol Holding, Makyol İnşaat, and Özaltın İnşaat each owns 27 percent. Göçay Grup holds less than one percent stake.

Batum’s remarks followed an earlier report by Bloomberg suggesting that the partners are weighing the sale of the toll road.

The joint venture that is building the highway asked international banks to bid for the right to advise them on the future of the road, Kerim Kemahlı, chief financial officer of Nurol Holding, told Bloomberg.

The options may include an outright sale of the venture known as Otoyol Yatirim ve Isletme AŞ, or a partial stake sale, Kemahlı said.

Astaldi is looking to sell assets wherever possible to raise money, according to Bloomberg.