Turkey holds auctions for three more sugar factories

ANKARA

Turkey’s Privatization Administration (ÖİB) conducted separate auctions to corporatize three sugar factories on April 16.

Turhal, Ilgın, and Erzurum—the three factories of the Turkish Sugar Refineries Corporation (Türkşeker)—were up for auction.

Kayseri Sugar Factory Co. offered the highest bid—569 million Turkish liras ($138.6 million)—for the Turhal Sugar Factory, while the tender for the factory started from 471 million liras ($114.6 million), as reported by Anadolu Agency.

The auction for the Ilgın Sugar Factory started from 632 million liras ($153.8 million) and received bids of up to 637 million liras ($155 million) from a textile firm, Alteks.

Meanwhile, the Erzurum Sugar Factory’s auction, which started at 211.3 million liras ($51.4 million), did not receive any bidder.

Fourteen factories in the provinces of Afyon, Erzurum, Alpullu, Ilgın, Bor, Kastamonu, Burdur, Kırşehir, Çorum, Muş, Elbistan, Turhal, Erzincan, and Yozgat were on the list for privatization.

Previously, auctions for the factories in Bor, Kırşehir, Çorum, and Yozgat had been held and the factories had been sold for 1.47 billion liras (around $357.2 million) amid criticism from deputies of opposition parties.