Yıldırım buys stake in Gemport from İşbank

ISTANBUL - Reuters

This photo shows the Gemport. Hürriyet photo

Turkish industrial group Yıldırım Holding is buying a majority stake in lender İşbank’s port unit Gemlik Liman (Gemport), striking an 11th-hour deal to strengthen its position in the country’s fast-growing ports industry.

Gemport said yesterday Yılport, a unit of Yıldırım Holding, had signed an agreement to buy a 54 percent stake in Gemport from İşbank. It gave no financial details.

“The decision was not made until the last minute after eleventh-hour negotiations,” a source close to the matter told Reuters.

A source close to the situation had previously said that Turkish army pension fund Oyak had agreed to buy Gemport.

“We estimate a roughly $350-400 million transaction value,” Oyak Securities, a unit of the pension fund, said in a research note after İşbank announced late on Oct.1 it was selling the stake.

Gemport is located near Istanbul, south-east of the Marmara Sea, and has an annual container storage capacity of 600,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEU), according to its website. TEU is a standard unit for the cargo capacity of container ships and container terminals.

Gemport was the 10th biggest port in Turkey in terms of handling capacity as of 2009, according to an Ernst and Young report.

Yıldırım Holding was founded in 1963 and is active in businesses including mining, port management, construction, ship building and fertilizers.