State Council Approves Decision-canceling Sale Of Tüpras

ANKARA (CÝHAN) - The State Council has approved the Ankara 10th Administrative Court's decision that canceled the sale of Tüpras to the to Efremov Kautschuk GMBH and Zorlu Holding. The State Council did not accept Turkish Privatization Administration's (OIB) decision to override the Ankara 10th Administrative Court.
The Ankara 10th Administrative Court had cancelled the decision of the Tender Commission on January 13, 2004 to transfer the Tupras Group A shares -equivalent to 65.76 percent of the company's shares- to the Tatarstan-based Russian company Efremov Kautschuk GMBH and its Turkish partner Zorlu Holding.
The OIB appealed the decision to the State Council but the State Council has not accepted the demand from the OIB to stop the decision of the Ankara Court. The State Council will review this appeal demand of OIB and will review issue.
The TUPRAS privatization-tendering process had been finalized on January 13 when Efremov Kautschuk GMBH and Zorlu Holding had their joint bid accepted. The Consortium had offered 1.302 billion US dollars in what was to be the biggest privatization to take place to date in Turkey.