Turkey’s Fiba Holding to sell stakes in Istanbul port for $2 billion

Turkey's Fiba Holding will sell its 65 percent shares inprivate port facility Kumport located in Istanbul's Ambarlı district for $2 billion, which were acquired for $255 million in 2007.

According to Hülya Güler's article published in Turkish daily Hürriyet, China's largest port operator China Merchants Group, is among the five bidders of Kumport facility. Kumport, Turkey's third largest port in terms of with 1.3 million TEU volume, was founded in 1994. Fiba had acquired Kumport in a partnership with Turkon Holding in 2007 for $255 million. The holding wholly acquired Kumport's shares in 2008, and later sold 35 percent of shares to Oman's State General Reserve Fund in 2008. With an average annual growth of 23 percent between 2007 and 2013, Kumport has handled 16 percent of Turkey's container work volume.

Fiba Holding President Hüsnü Özyeğin confirmed the sale of shares in Kumport, however, abstained from further comments. The holding reportedly switched from partial sale of shares to total sale as it received very good offers.

Özyeğin, known as the businessman with far sight, founded Turkey's fifth largest private lender, Finansbank, from the scratch in 1987. Some 46 percent of the bank's shares were later sold to National Bank of Greece for $2.8 billion.

After Finansbank, Özyeğin founded another bank in Turkey branded Fibabank, while transforming Finansbank's European division into Credit EuropeBank in 2007, which became an important player in finance market with 4,500 employees and its operation extending into China, Russia, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.