NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Dec 27 2007

Court suspends sale of Turkish petrochemicals company

The Istanbul Stock Exchange suspended trading in Petkim shares on the
news of the sale being blocked.

Güncelleme: 20:02 TSÝ 27 Aralýk 2007 Perþembe

ANKARA – The sale of a 51 percent stake in Turkey’s largest
petrochemicals company has been suspended by Turkey’s top
administrative court on Thursday.

However, in its decision, the court said that the sale would be
allowed to go ahead if Turkey’s privatisation board cleared the
transfer of shares to the consortium that was awarded the controlling
stake in Petkim after the state tender held earlier this year.

The consortium, consisting of Turcas, the Azeri state oil company
Socar and Saudi based firm Injaz, bid just over $2 billion for the 51
percent stake in Petkim. In the original auction, it was outbid by
another consortium, but the sale was overturned when it was
discovered that some of the winning consortium were representatives
of Armenian business interests.