Board seeks adviser for Halkbank sell-off

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Halkbank General Manager Süleyman Aslan speaks at a press meeting. The state plans sell the lender. Hürriyet photo

Turkey’s Privatization Administration (ÖİB) has invited consultant companies to take part in the sell-off process for state-run Halkbank.

An advisory joint venture will be hired to oversee a tender process to sell the 75 percent of shares of Halkbank the state owns, according to the website of the ÖİB.

Institutional finance firms, investment banks and brokerage houses can apply for pre-qualification by forming a joint venture including at least one local and one foreign investment bank.

Candidate firms should be experienced in advising, brokering, initial public offerings, block sales, mergers and acquisitions, privatization implementations etc. The deadline for the pre-qualification application is August 28 at 3 p.m.

Separately, another state-run bank, Ziraat, recorded 1.27 billion Turkish Liras of net profit in the first half of the year, posting a 25 percent year-on-year increase, according to a statement made to the Istanbul bourse.

The bank’s net profit in the second quarter was up by 38 percent year-on-year, reaching 613.79 million liras.

Yapı Kredi, a leading private bank, recorded 838 million Turkish Liras in net profits for the first half of the year. The bank’s second quarter profit was slightly down to 424 million from 441.8 million liras in the same period last year.