Turkish conglomerate Oyak Group is in talks with a view to investing in the Turkish energy sector, CEO Coskun Ulusoy said yesterday after announcing the sale of the group's bank for $2.7 billion.
He said the conglomerate, whose businesses range from financial services to steel, was also looking at an offer that had been presented to the group, and also concerned the energy sector.
«In the energy sector, we are in talks over a very serious investment... Separately, we are working on an offer for another serious investment,» he told a news conference.«We also have plans for investment abroad,» he said.
Oyak Group announced the sale of its lender Oyak Bank to Dutch financial group ING on Tuesday.
Oyak, which is also the army pension fund, bought leading steelmaker Erdemir in 2005 in a privatization.
Assets still to be privatized in Turkey under a broad IMF-backed sell-off program include electricity grids. The sale of three of them attracted several foreign utilities, but has been postponed until after the July national elections.
Energy-importing Turkey is also seeking to expand the sector with multi-billion-dollar private sector projects, including pipelines and nuclear plants.
(Reuters, 20/06/2007)