Turkey’s treasury shares in several public companies like Ziraat Bankası, Borsa İstanbul, and Turkish Petroleum (TP) have been transferred to the recently established the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Turkey which is out of the scrutiny of the state auditing body, the Supreme Court of Account.
According to Turkey’s Prime Ministry statement, treasury shares in state-run lender Ziraat Bankası, Borsa Istanbul, General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT), Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), national petroleum producer TP, satellite technologies company TURKSAT and 6.88 percent treasury shares in telecommunication company TurkTelekom and official mining company Eti Maden and General Directorate of Tea Enterprises (ÇAYKUR) were transferred to Sovereign Wealth Fund.
The Prime Ministry also said in its written statement that the existing managements and policies of these companies will continue to cooperate with shareholders and international financial institutions. Turkey’s Sovereign Wealth Fund would operate these companies under the Strategic Investment Plan to be approved by the Cabinet.
The biggest public bank, Ziraat Bankası, with around $110 billion total assets as of Q3 of 2016, has more than 25,000 employees and more than 1,800 branches. TP, a public oil company, operates Turkey’s domestic and international exploration and production activities. The company will make $1.7 billion in investments in 2017 for exploration of energy resources and to increase its annual oil production to $28.5 billion barrels in 2017. Moreover, Turkey’s public post company PTT includes about 4,500 offices, 40,000 workers and over 7,000 vehicles.
