Turkey Wealth Fund Buys 10% Stake in Borsa Istanbul from EBRD

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund has acquired a 10% stake in the nation’s bourse from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, it said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

The acquisition brings its stake in Borsa Istanbul to 90.6%, the fund said.

The deal puts an end to the EBRD’s investment in the Turkish bourse, which started at the end of 2015. In October, the EBRD said it had a right to sell its stake in the company after Mehmet Hakan Atilla -- a banker convicted in the U.S. for helping Iran to evade economic sanctions -- was appointed Borsa Istanbul’s chief executive officer.

Zafer Sonmez, the CEO of the wealth fund, told Bloomberg in October that the fund was planning to boost its holding in Borsa Istanbul and then take it public.

To contact the reporter on this story: Constantine Courcoulas in Istanbul at ccourcoulas1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, ;Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Taylan Bilgic, Amy Teibel

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