By Yeliz Candemir
ISTANBUL--Turkey will hold a secondary public offering for a
6.68% stake in Turk Telekom (TTKOM.IS) by the end of this year,
reducing its share in the fixed-line phone company to 25%,
according to a cabinet decision published in government journal
Official Gazette on Wednesday.
In December, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said the government
may initially decrease its 31.68% stake in Turk Telekom to 25%. The
majority stake is owned by Dubai-based Oger Telecom.
Earlier in January, Mr. Simsek said privatizations would also
resume at a healthy pace following previous years' shortcomings.
Turkey has already transferred $4.2 billion in privatization
revenue to the government budget in anticipation of more than $4
billion in privatization proceeds in 2013.
Turkey completed its largest-ever share sale in November, with
4.51 billion lira ($2.5 billion) raised by an oversubscribed
secondary public offering of one-fifth of state-owned bank
Halkbank. That topped Turkey's previous largest share sale of a 15%
stake in Turk Telekom in 2008, which raised $1.9 billion.
Write to Yeliz Candemir at yeliz.candemir@dowjones.com
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