Turkish court suspends Izmir port tender

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Feb 2008

A top Turkish court has suspended a privatisation tender for Izmir port, won by a consortium of Hong Kong's Hutchison and Global Investment Holding, the union involved in the case said on Thursday. Metin Bayyar, lawyer for the Liman-Is union which had appealed for last year's tender to be cancelled, told Reuters the court had suspended the deal, not cancelled it as local media had reported earlier.Shares in Global Investment Holding fell 9 percent after the initial report and were then suspended from trade. In a short statement to the stock market, the firm said it had not been informed of developments related to the case.Hong Kong's stock market was closed when the news broke.Legal battles over privatisations are not uncommon in Turkey. The top administrative court, the Danistay, frequently suspends privatisation tenders but the pro-business government has often managed to push the deals through.The Hutchison consortium, which also includes Turkish port operator EIB, made the winning bid of $1.28 billion last May for the operating rights for 49 years to the Aegean port.