Cicek: We Are Planning To Open Tenders For Privatization Of Telekom And Tekel

ANKARA - Turkish Justice Minister and government spokesman Cemil Cicek said on Monday, ''we are planning to open tenders for the privatization of the Turkish Telekom and for the Tekel in October. Also, efforts are under way for a public offering of state-run Turkish Airlines (THY) in November.''
Holding a news conference following today's meeting of Council of Ministers, Cicek said, ''work on the process of a public offering of THY shares to be launched on November 17 are continuing with speed.''
''The tender for the 51 percent block sale of Turkish Telekom would be opened in the first week of October. The tender for Tekel's tobacco operations would be launched in the third week of next month,'' Cicek added.
Turkey canceled a sale of the tobacco operations of the General Directorate of Tobacco, Tobacco Products, Salt and Alcohol Enterprises (Tekel) last November after bids in the tender fell well short of market expectations. The highest bid in the previous tender came from Japan International (JTI) with an offer of 1.15 billion U.S. dollars.
(To be continued)
(UK-MS) 20.09.2004