Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has sold HES Kablo, a cable manufacturer once owned by the Boydak family, to Rize-based Nakkaş Holding, continuing the government’s liquidation of assets seized after a 2016 coup attempt, Turkish Minute reported on Friday.
The tender was finalized on Tuesday, following several failed attempts to attract bids for the company. Previous auctions were cancelled after offers were deemed insufficient. HES Kablo’s market value had recently declined to around 18.6 billion Turkish lira ($450 million).
As part of the sale, Nakkaş Holding acquired 30 billion shares of HES Kablo held by the Treasury, representing full ownership of the firm. The package also included 21,993,325 shares of Çelik Halat, amounting to a 27.49 percent stake in the steel wire producer.
Founded in 1974, HES Kablo became one of Turkey’s largest cable manufacturers, producing energy, telecommunications and fiber optic cables. It was among the key subsidiaries of Boydak Holding, a central Anatolia-based conglomerate that grew into a major player in furniture, textiles and energy before being seized by the state in August 2016 over alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by the late Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members and designated it as a terrorist organization in May 2016. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following the coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding.
Following the failed coup, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government launched a massive purge targeting real and alleged members of the movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight, removing over 130,000 people from civil service jobs.
Former Boydak Holding executives were detained in 2016 on charges of links to the Gülen movement.
Boydak Holding, one of the largest conglomerates in Turkey, was active in a number of sectors, including energy, furniture and banking, with 38 subsidiaries. The holding had an annual turnover of more than $2 billion and employed over 13,000 people before it was confiscated.
The AKP also seized schools, universities, media outlets, companies and their buildings and the assets of individuals, corporations and organizations that were believed to have had ties to the Gülen movement.
More than 1,100 companies have been transferred to Turkey’s TMSF, most of them following the failed coup. Journalists from confiscated newspapers and TV stations have been arrested, replaced and jailed.
