Turkey Weighs Buying EBRD’s Bourse Stake Amid Furor Over CEO
Turkey to Buy EBRD’s 10% Share in Istanbul Bourse
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey offered to buy shares in Borsa Istanbul possibly being lined up for sale by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development following concerns over a convicted banker’s appointment to lead the benchmark stock exchange.
TWF, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, will raise its holding in the exchange to more than 90%, Chief Executive Officer Zafer Sonmez said in a written statement to Bloomberg. It also plans to take the company public, he said, following several attempts in the past four years that were postponed as the stock exchange waited for a favorable time that could maximize its value.
“We plan to successfully manage the initial public offering of Borsa Istanbul” in the next two years, Sonmez said.
The fund, which controls assets worth tens of billions of dollars, showed interest after the EBRD said it could sell its 10% stake in Borsa Istanbul. It cited concerns over the appointment of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was convicted in the U.S. for busting Iran sanctions, to lead the bourse.
EBRD bought its stake in Borsa Istanbul in 2015 with a view to exiting through an IPO. Back then, Turkey’s stock exchange was looking for investors that could provide technology and expertise to help it sell shares to the public. Nasdaq OMX Group, which in 2013 was also an investor in Turkey’s stock exchange, sold its 7% holding in 2018.
TWF, which took over the Treasury’s 73.6% stake in the Turkish bourse in 2017, said EBRD first made known its intention to exit its investment in March 2018. EBRD declined to comment.
TWF’s Sonmez said increased ownership in Borsa Istanbul complements the sovereign fund’s strategy to turn Istanbul into a regional finance center.
--With assistance from Tugce Ozsoy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Abelsky at pabelsky@bloomberg.net, ;Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Onur Ant, Amy Teibel
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