Turk Telekom public offering process goes on

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Work on a secondary public offering (SPO) of Turkey’s biggest telecom company, Turk Telekom, is continuing and the timing will depend on market conditions, the country’s Privatization Administration (OIB) said on March 15.

The OIB statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange came after Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim said in an interview that the planned sale of a roughly 7 percent stake of Turk Telekom was on hold.

The OIB said the Türk Telekom Tender Commission was authorized to determine the timing of the SPO according to market conditions and that the work on it was continuing. While the Council of Ministers decided in January that a 6.68 percent stake of Turk Telekom is set to be sold through an SPO until Dec 31, 2013, sources close to the decision claim it will happen in February. 

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