Platts 2003/1/23

Turkey's Petkim privatization to be completed Q2 2003

Turkish Petrochemical firm, Petkim Petrokimya, expects its privatization process to be complete within the first half of the year. On Jan 20, the government launched a tender for the block sale of a 51% controlling interest in Petkim, company sources confirmed.
Bidding is set to close on Apr 2, at which time offers will be collected, and the winning bidder will enter negotiations to finalize the sale. Petkim is currently 93% owned by the Turkish government, and 7% by private investors. Petkim, which reported a net profit of TL2,887/bil ($14-mil) for the first 9 months of 2002, has 4,865 employees. The tender is a part of Turkey's plan to raise at least $4-bil in privatization revenue, announced in January, in order to meet the target of a $16-bil pact made with the International Monetary Fund.

---

London (Platts)--30May2003

Four companies to bid for Turkey's Petkim 51% stake Jun 6

Four companies are set to submit bids in Turkey's tender for the sale of a minimum 51% shares in the country's sole petrochemical producer, Petkim, on Jun 6, a Petkim source told Platts, Friday.
The tender was floated on Apr 2. The four bidders are Standard Kimya AS, a Turkish chemicals company, Sanko Kimya Ltd, a Turkish chemicals and textiles group, ChemOrbis, a Turkish e-marketplace for chemicals and plastics, and Vakiflar Bank, one of Turkey's largest public banks. Earlier bids from Turkish consumer electronics and textile group, Zorlu, will not be presented. A source close to Petkim expected the government committee to make their decision within a month of bid submissions. Turkey's privatization administration was not immediately available for confirmation.

---

Platts 2003/6/6

Standart Kimya acquires 88.86% of Petkim for $605-mil

Turkey's privatization office has announced the results of the tender for the sale of 88.86% of the shares in the state owned petrochemical producer Petrokimya Holding AS (Petkim). The highest bid of $605m was entered by a Turkish company, Standart Kimya Petrol Dogalgaz San. Tic. A.S.

Established earlier this year for the sole aim of entering the Petkim sale Standart Kimya has no production facilities of its own, and is wholly owned by Turkey's Rumeli Holding, itself owned by Turkey's controversial Uzan family.

---

Jul 04, 2003 Chemical Week

Turkey Approves Sale of Petkim

The Higher Privatization Council (Ankara) has approved the sale of the Turkish government's 88.86% stake in petrochemicals manufacturer Petkim (Izmir) to Standart Kimya Petrol Dogalgaz Sanayi ve Tikaret (Istanbul). Standart Kimya's $605-million bid for the Petkim stake was the highest in a recently held auction. The council says that privately owned Standart Kimya has until the end of this month to sign a purchase contract, submit a letter of credit as collateral, and make a downpayment equivalent to one-third of the purchase price. The sale will be cancelled if those conditions are not met, the council says.

---

9 July, 2000, Turkish Probe issue 390, Turkish Daily News

Raids on Two Uzan Companies Expose Mismanagement History

Raids by Capital Market Board (SPK) inspectors and police on two private electricity producers two weeks ago resulted in banner headlines about their parent company Rumeli Holding's controversial business dealings.

The Uzan family's Rumeli Holding, which is engaged in far-ranging activities from media to telecoms, the cement industry and finance to power distribution, is accused of sucking its two publicly traded affiliates dry and illicitly pumping their profits into its other subsidiaries.

It is not the first time Rumeli is getting slammed for its questionable business tactics. It was once blamed for trying to set up a cement monopoly in southeastern Turkey through acquiring cement producers there. When its Star newspaper was launched, it slashed the price to what some said was an unsustainable level in order to compete with the two media giants, Dogan Holding and Medya Holding, which dominate almost the entire newspaper industry.

The Uzans have occasionally used their Star television to -- at the very least -- irritate those who somehow wronged them. They had once campaigned against Turkcell, Turkey's leading mobile phone operator, and its business partner Ericsson for what they labeled as supporting the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), probably to increase the popularity of Rumeli's mobile operator Telsim.

August 7, 2003 Financial Times

Turkey/ Privatization body cancels tender for petrochemical plant

Privatization Administration Board cancelled on Wednesday [6 August] the tender for sale of 88.86 per cent of Petrochemical Holding Inc. (Petkim).

A statement of the board said that Standart Kimya Inc. which was awarded with the Petkim tender did not fulfil conditions of the decision of the board taken on 30 July 2003 within 30 days of time.

The statement noted that the board approved sale of the shares of Petkim to Standart Kimya Inc. on 30 July and added that the board decided to cancel the tender since Standart Kimya Inc. did not fulfil the conditions within 30 days pursuant to the notification of the decision.

http://www.petkim.com.tr/ing/ytrbilgileri1.htm　

MAJOR INVESTMENT PROJECTS

Last Updated :April 1,2003  

SASA DUPONT SABANCI POLYESTER

Formerly known as SASA Suni ve Sentetik Elyaf Sanayii A.S..

The Company's principal activities are the production and marketing of polyester and related products for domestic and export markets. The company produces polyester staple fibres, yarns for the textile industry and PET resins primarily for beverage and edible oil industries. In addition, it is a vertically integrated manufacturer of polyester products, producing the principle raw material of polyester DMT. The Company also operates a PET bottle recycling plant.

Sasa runs a 240,000 mt/yr dimethyl terephthalate plant.

http://www.dupontsa.com.

The decision by DuPont and Sabanci to merge their Polyester Fibre, Resin and Intermediates business has resulted in the formation of the largest Polyester Company in Greater Europe.

DuPont - the largest chemical company in the world - employing 92,000 employees and operating in 65 countries and Sabanci, one of the two largest conglomerates in Turkey with 30,000 employees and over 50 companies ranging under its banner including joint ventures with major multi-national blue chip organisations have together forged a powerful alliance for the 21st Century.

Our aim is to develop, make and sell polyester filament, staple, resins and intermediates throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

DuPont and Sabanci are equal partners in this venture with a combined annual turnover of approx. $1 billion.

As well as having the widest product range of any manufacturer, DuPontSA will have unrivalled access to leading technology through DuPont Polyester Technology business as well as licensing and Brand management expertise.

We are committed to providing competitive offerings to our customers and will focus single-mindedly on what they value.

Baser Kimya 　　　　http://www.baserkimya.com.tr/　　

The Baser Group of Companies is a leading Turkish industrial group with activities in the chemicals, plastics, textiles, finance, food and international trade. The Baser Group's steady and fast growth has been guided by its corporate policies of unconditional customer satisfaction, investment in human resources and total quality management.

Baser Chemical, Baser Group's first investment in the industrial sector and the Group's flagship company, was established in 1974 to produce chemical ingredients for the detergent and cosmetic industries in Turkey and international markets. Baser Chemical is one of the largest chemicals manufacturers in Turkey and is investing steadily in the capacity and advanced technology required to compete successfully in this highly dynamic sector.

In 1984, Baser Chemical expanded its capacity and diversified its product range with the establishment of a modern Ballestra Film sulphonation plant and a high-technology atomised powder detergent plant. In 1985, Baser Chemical entered a joint venture agreement with Colgate Palmolive, the world's leading international consumer products manufacturing and marketing company, that marked the beginning of a new period of growth in household cleaning products and chemicals. We are proud of the mutually beneficial partnership that Baser Chemical has developed with Colgate Palmolive.

In addition to the Colgate Palmolive products, Baser Chemical produces its own industrial and household cleaning products under the brand names of Alfa, Gala and Tek both for domestic and international markets. A heavy marketing campaign has been initiated in the Balkans, Central Asia, Russia and Ukraine. The group aims to create strong consumer brands in these markets which can compete successively with multinational brands.

Private Label Business
At home, Baser Chemical is pioneering the development of the market for private-label household cleaning products, supplying the growing number of multinational hypermarkets such as Metro, Carrefour, Dia, Real, Migros, Tansas and wholesalers such as Kovan. Now a niche market, Baser Chemical expects the demand for private label products in Turkey to grow as rapidly as it has in Europe and the US over the last decade. In order to participate in the Europe and Middle East private label market, partnerships in Israel and Romania have been set up.

Baser Kimya runs a 40,000 mt/yr polystyrene plant in south Turkey.

Platts 2003/9/2

Turkey's Tupras privatization bid attracts 20 potential suitors

Turkey's privatization authority confirmed that 20 companies have purchased bid documents for the tender to buy 65.76% stake in state oil refiner and petrochemical producer Tupras, officials said late Monday. The tender deadline was recently extended to Oct 2.
Potential bidders reportedly include oil majors BP and Shell, as well as Russia's Yukos, Lukoil and Tatneft. Also, a number of Turkish products distributors such as Opet (co-owned by Turkey's giant Koc group), POAS (co-owned by media group Dogan and Turkey's largest private bank, Is bank), and Turcas, (which ConocoPhillips holds a controlling minority stake). Tupras currently operates four refineries with a capacity of around 588,000 b/d and which supply around 70% of the products used in Turkey. Tupras also operates the Korfez petrochemical complex, at Yarimca, 70km west of Istanbul, which houses a 33,000 mt/yr butadiene extraction plant, 20,000 mt/yr polybutadiene rubber plant, 40,000 mt/yr carbon black unit, 27,000 mt/yr polystyrene unit and a 33,000 mt/yr styrene butadiene rubber plant.

Whoever buys Tupras is likely to want to close the company's loss making Korfez petrochemical plant sooner rather than later, market sources said. The plant was acquired by Tupras only in November 2001, when it was transferred from state-owned petrochemical firm Petkim, which itself is being privatized, in a move supposed to make Petkim more attractive to potential buyers.

However, the transfer also called for Tupras to take on responsibility for Petkim's personnel who were to be employed at the new refinery, saving the then government from the embarrassment of large scale redundancies. Although running "at a loss", market sources said that operations at the Yarimca site is widely believed to be continuing solely to help with the wage burden of the fore Petkim staff. Once Tupras is sold, these obligations on staffing levels are expected to end, opening the way for Korfez complex to be shut down, sources added.