Page 15 - bne_np_June_9_2017

Southeast Europe
June 9, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
“The Turkish government got carried away with the winds of the [2010-2012] Arab Spring, think- ing it could lead to Islamist thought dominating
in Muslim-majority countries through democratic elections, like the example of the AKP which had support from the US and the EU in its early stag- es,” political commentator Murat Yetkin wrote in a June 7 article for Hurriyet Daily News.
“It drew a connection between itself and the Muslim Brotherhood with its tradition of staying away from terrorism and its grassroots support in certain Muslim countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Syria,” Yetkin noted.
According to fellow political commentator Semiz Idiz, Turkey’s main dilemma is that it has excellent political and economic ties with Qatar, a country with which
it shares common views on issues like the Syrian crisis and support for the Muslim Brotherhood, while
at the same time it is trying to develop strategic ties with Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries.
Qatar is one of the top 20 investors in Turkey, as are Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Qatari direct in- vestment in Turkey between 2002 and March 2017 amounted to $1.5bn, representing a 1.1% share of total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Saudi Arabia invested $1.95bn in the same period, while investors from the UAE poured in $4.2bn.
In return, Turkish contractors have enjoyed lucrative deals in all three countries. For instance, Turkish companies undertook 128 projects worth $14.2bn between 1972 and March 2017 in Qatar alone, according to data from the Contractors’ Associa- tion of Turkey (TMB). Turkish construction firms, meanwhile, have been eagerly pursuing a share of the $170bn of work required in advance of the FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar in 2022.
Planned IPO of Slovenian lender NLB collapses
bne IntelliNews
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerer announced on June 9 that his government has decided to give up on the IPO of the country’s largest lender Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB). The decision was made after his cabinet rejected €55 as the minimum bid price per share earlier in the day.
Ljubljana has to sell off NLB by the end of this year, as agreed with the European Commission when it nationalised the bank in 2013. However, the planned IPO already looked doubtful amid strong resistance to the privatisation from the population and a split within the government coalition on the issue.
The government’s June 8 statement also indicated divisions between Cerar’s party and the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH), the holding company that
manages state assets, and whose position was closer to that of Cerar’s junior coalition partner the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (Desus).
SSH proposed a price range for NLB shares from €55 to €71, which according to media speculation was in the range anticipated by Desus leader and Deputy Prime Minister Karl Erjavec.
Desus reportedly wanted the sale to bring in at least €1.55bn – the size of the capital increase when the state bailed out NLB in 2013 – but analysts believed Slovenia could at most get about €1bn for the whole bank, Reuters reported on June 6.
“The government has not approved the minimum price. Its key job now is to look for and find better solutions in cooperation with the European Com-