Azerbaijani-Turkish Consortium Gets Majority Shares Of Turkey's Petrochemical Co.

ANKARA - An Azerbaijani-Turkish consortium formally got the majority shares of Turkey`s Petrochemical Holding Co. (Petkim) on Friday.
Socar-Turcas-Injaz consortium paid in advance 1.6 billion of 2.04 billion USD to buy 51 percent of Petkim`s shares, and signed a contract in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
The consortium is expected to pay the rest 380 million USD in three years.
Turkey held the tender to privatize 51 percent of the petrochemical company in July 2007. The TransCentralAsia Petrochemical Holding consortium submitted the highest bid in the tender worth 2.05 billion USD.
However, the tender committee decided to award the first runner-up, Socar-Turcas-Injaz consortium, with the tender. This consortium offered 2,040 million USD. Then, the Higher Board of Privatization approved the sale.
In a separate development, Petrol-Is union filed lawsuits against Petkim`s privatization, and the trial process continues.
Petkim was set up under the leadership of Turkish Petroleum Corporation on April 3rd, 1965. It opened five factories in Izmit-Yarimci petrochemical complex in 1970. Then, several other factories were established.
The second area where Petkim opened a complex was Aliaga town of the Aegean province of Izmir.
Today, Petkim is one of the leading companies in Turkey with its 14 factories, electricity generation unit, port and dam (Guzelhisar dam) and an indispensable raw material producer of Turkish industry.
The company announced it had made a net profit of 73.8 million USD at the end of 2007.
(BRC-MS)