Published: November 21, 2012
Turkey’s sale of its 20.8% stake in Halk Bank is the country’s largest ever.
Turkey has raised TRY4.51bn (US$2.5bn) through the sale of a 20.8% stake in state-controlled Halk Bank. It is the country’s largest ever share sale, trumping the US$1.9bn raised through the sale of Turk Telekom in 2008.
In a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange from sale organiser Finans Invest, it was confirmed that the sale consisted of 299 million units at US$8.4 a piece. This is near the top of the offer range of US$7.7-8.8. The Halk Bank sale is third largest in Europe so far in 2012 with another CEE deal, the sale of a US$5bn stake in Russia’s Sberbank, ranking second.
This is the latest deal in a slow process of privatisation that began back in the mid-1980s. A controlling stake in Halk Bank was touted for sale back in 2008. The deal was shelved, along with a number of other proposed privatisations, due to weak market conditions.