Turkish privatization chief sacked, but sell-offs safe
ANKARA – The sacking of Turkey’s privatization chief is unlikely to undermine the basic principles driving a wave of state selloffs in crisis-hit Turkey but it may cause delays, observers said on Wednesday. Officials say Privatization Administration (OIB) Chief Ugur Bayar was dismissed this week after clashing with State Minister Yilmaz Karakoyunlu who oversees privatization, though no official announcement has been made. There was no major reaction on Istanbul markets to the news about Bayar but some brokers cited it as one of several reasons leading to a near 1 percent fall on the stock market. «The dismissal of Ugur Bayar brought a dip in the market,» said Erkan Makasci at Park Raymond James in Istanbul. Officials said the two had clashed over investment plans in state-run Turkish Airlines, which is slated for privatization under Turkey’s $16 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program. Differences also emerged over the handling of last month’s sale of a stake in fuel retailer Petrol Ofisi. Some Turkish papers, however, played up the fact that Bayar’s brother, Mehmet Ali Bayar, has decided to leave his diplomatic post in the USA to move into politics at the head of a center-right party called the Democratic Turkey Party (DTP). A London-based analyst said he did not believe Bayar’s sacking was the result of any anti-privatization move within the Turkish government.
