Turkish state-run oil refiner Tupras said yesterday it planned the block sale of a controlling stake in the company next month.
“The block sale of 51 percent of shares of Tupras is planned within the month of April,” General Director Husamettin Danis told an international energy conference.
The Tupras sell-off, thwarted last year when a court ruling halted a block sale of the state’s stake, is a key element of Turkey’s IMF-backed privatisation program.
A near-15 percent stake in Tupras was sold to foreign-based investors last month and the state Privatization Administration (OIB) now holds 51 percent of the refiner.
Last year, a court challenge canceled the $1.3 billion sale of a 65.76 percent stake to a joint venture between Turkey’s Zorlu Group and Russia’s Tatneft.
The OIB unveiled its plan to sell off 14.76 percent to foreign investors despite a court challenge by oil workers’ union Petrol-Is, which says the sale went against correct tender procedures and was against the public interest.