Istanbul looking to Citi, EFG and Ak for sale of gas grid

Istanbul Municipality has hired Citigroup Inc., EFG Istanbul Securities and Ak Investment as advisers on the sale of its natural gas grid operator.

“The municipality’s subsidiaries department has awarded the three financial institutions with the advising process,” said Cengiz Öztürk, a spokesman for the Istanbul municipality, by telephone Monday. “They will decide on the method.”

Turkey’s largest city is seeking $10 billion from selling stakes in grid company Istanbul Gaz Dağıtım, or İGDAŞ, a gas distribution company, and ferry operator Istanbul Seabuses and Fast Ferries, or İDO, Sabah newspaper reported in September, citing council records.

The gas grid has roughly 4.2 million customers and sold nearly 4 billion cubic meters of gas in 2008, approximately 10 percent of Turkey’s annual demand, according to its Web site.

The bids for advising on the sale were collected in January and also included interest from Bank of America Corporation’s Merrill Lynch, Calyon, the Credit Suisse Group, Turkey’s private investment and development bank, TSKB, and Oyak Securities, sources familiar with the process said in January.

Istanbul’s municipal council has voted in favor of a plan to sell the İGDAŞ stakes and İDO, Mayor Kadir Topbaş said in an interview on Feb. 17. “We will complete the sale in 2010,” he said, referring to the İGDAŞ sale.