Telekom’s stake sale planned for February

ANKARA - Reuters

A general scene of Turkish Stock Exchange is seen in this photo. Turkey is set to sell a stake of around 7 percent in its biggest telecoms company, Türk Telekom.

Turkey will sell a stake of around 7 percent in its biggest telecoms company, Türk Telekom, through a secondary public offering in February, sources close to the matter said yesterday.

Work on selling part of the state’s 32 percent stake intensified after the government successfully raised 4.5 billion Turkish liras from selling part of state-controlled lender Halkbank last month, the sources said.
“The current projection is that the 6.68 percent stake will be sold through a public offering in the first quarter of 2013,” a source with knowledge of the issue said. “A block sale is highly unlikely for a sale of this size.” Based on its current share price, Türk Telekom’s market value is around 24 billion liras.

Dubai-based Oger Telecom, part owned by Saudi Telecom, holds 55 percent, while 13.3 percent is traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange after the company was privatized for $1.87 billion in 2008.

“The most important factor for the success of such sales is timing. For this reason, we can expect the SPO to take place in mid-February, when the 2012 financial results will be released,” another source close to the process told Reuters.

The Halkbank sale last month, Turkey’s biggest ever share sale, showed a shift in the government’s privatization strategy was starting to bear fruit.

Disappointing privatization receipts have put pressure on government finances in recent years, with high valuations and tough funding conditions due to the euro zone debt crisis forcing the postponement of several tenders.