Turkey

A half-built Turkish residential development of hundreds of mini-castles won a reprieve from bankruptcy on Friday when creditors voted to allow a construction company to complete work on the project, Reuters reported. The Burj al Babas project, set among hills about 200 km (120 miles) east of Istanbul, was conceived as a luxury housing development with row upon row of identical cream-coloured homes, shaped like chateaus with grey turrets and all built around a shopping mall and hotel.

A consortium building Turkey’s Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir motorway has started seeking international advisers to value the project ahead of a possible stake sale, Otoyol Investment company said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In a first stage, the consortium will determine the value of the project and potential buyers, the consortium, which includes Italian construction group Astaldi, said in a statement. “It is a lengthy process to sell a stake in a project of this scale,” the consortium said, adding it would be up to the partners to decide whether to dispose of their share.

The parent company of one of Turkey’s largest food producers is in talks with lenders to restructure a portion of its $2 billion debt pile, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Anadolu Birlik Holding AS wants to extend maturities on loans it took out to finance investments in the energy sector, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private, Bloomberg News reported. The company is seeking to restructure less than half of its total debt and the negotiations may be finalized within the next two months, one of the people said.

Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk is in talks to sell some of Europe’s most famous luxury hotels to the investment firm owned by Dubai’s ruler as part of a debt restructuring, people with knowledge of the matter said. The discussions involve properties including the historic Capri Palace in Italy, the Aldrovandi Villa Borghese in Rome and Istanbul’s Grand Hyatt, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private, Bloomberg News reported. Dubai Holding is doing due diligence on the Capri Palace and Aldrovandi, one of the people said.

Turkey’s biggest state-run bank will extend cheap loans to citizens struggling to pay off their credit-card debts, in a populist move designed to boost the economy before local elections in March, Bloomberg News reported. Citizens will be able to borrow from Ziraat Bankasi AS to pay back their card debt to banks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his party’s group meeting in parliament Tuesday. Ziraat Bank said in a statement it will offer loans for up to two years with a 1.1 percent interest rate per month, less than half the cost of the retail loan rate on its website.

Soccer is the latest Turkish industry to face a large-scale debt revamp after the country’s top teams suffered money-losing seasons and borrowed heavily to buy marquee players. Turkey’s banking association and soccer federation are preparing to announce a restructuring plan for about 11 billion liras ($2 billion) of debt held by the nation’s soccer teams after reaching an agreement Friday, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of the country’s four listed clubs surged.

Turkey’s currency has sustained a fresh blow in a grim 2019 debut marked by rising concerns over the global economy and angst that improving inflation data could prompt the central bank to prematurely reduce interest rates, the Financial Times reported. The lira has tumbled 4 per cent against the US dollar over the past two trading days, according to Refinitiv data. Thursday’s drop left it at TL5.5 to the buck, having closed last year at TL5.2877. It has not faced such a sharp two-day decline since the wake of the currency crisis in August 2018.

Turkey is facing a mounting number of applications for bankruptcy protection as a slump in economic growth takes its toll on business, the Financial Times reported.

A group of Turkey’s major banks took control of Turk Telekom AS, the nation’s largest phone company, setting it up for a likely sale after previous owner Otas defaulted on a multi-billion-dollar loan, Bloomberg News reported. Akbank TAS will hold 35.6 percent of the special purpose vehicle set up to take on Otas’s 55 percent controlling stake, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS will have 22.1 percent of that entity, and Turkiye Is Bankasi AS’s share is 11.6 percent, according to filings Saturday.