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Arkad consortium wins tender for construction of Bulgarian part of Turkish Stream. Bulgaria’s state-owned natural gas supplier Bulgargaz said it has picked a consortium comprising Saudi Arabia's Arkad Engineering and Construction Company and Italy-registered Arkad ABB for construction of the Turkish Stream extension on the country’s territory that will connect the gas network with Serbia. The tender has faced obstacles and was temporary frozen as local Atomenergoremont had objected to the procedure. The Arkad consortium has offered to build the 484 km pipeline for €1.29bn within 250 days, or for €1.10bn should the deadline be extended to 615 days.
Shares in Toronto-listed Valeura to sell on LSE to fund fracking for gas in Turkey’s Thrace basin. Valeura, a Toronto-listed gas firm testing onshore gas resources in Turkey’s Thrace basin, said on April 17 it expects its shares to start trading on the London Stock Exchange in a non-dilutive secondary listing next week. Valeura, operating with Norway’s Equinor, is exploring the potential to extract gas in Turkey by fracking. The company and its partners sit on 20 trillion cubic feet, or roughly 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, of potential gas and condensate resources two hours from Istanbul. They are fracking at a depth of more than 3 km (1.9 miles).
9.2.2 Automotive corporate news
Seker and VTB pick carmakers. Seker Invest saw the March data on fallen domestic vehicle sales as Positive for carmaker Tofas, Negative for carmaker Ford Otosan and Strong Negative for importer Dogus Otomotiv, Mehmet Mumcu of the Istanbul-based brokerage house, said on April 4 in a research note. Tofas’ recent strong performance in passenger cars resulted in the company becoming the second largest player on the domestic light vehicle market after Renault with Dogus Otomotiv moving to third place as of Q1, Vladimir Bespalov of VTB Capital said on April 2 in a research note. Ford Otosan continued to outperform the market in the LCV segment, which is a key source of cashflow and profitability for the company on the domestic market, he also noted.
VTB Capital reduced its 12-month target price by 8% for DP Eurasia shares to TRY120 but kept its Buy recommendation , the Russian investment bank said on April 3 in a note on the Turkey and Russia Domino’s Pizza franchisee’s 2018 financials.
Honda to end car production in Turkey in two years. Honda said on April 8 that it has decided to end car production in Turkey following the completion of the production of its current Civic Sedan model in 2021. It said in a statement that it took the decision because of electrification developments in the auto industry globally and the need to ensure adequate production capacity. Operations in the automobile area that include vehicle imports and distribution would continue in Turkey, Honda said. It added that its motorcycle operations would not be impacted by the production decision.
Czech carmaker Skoda deciding between Bulgaria and Turkey for new plant: report. Czech carmaker Skoda Auto is deciding between Bulgaria and Turkey for a new factory with an annual capacity of 350,000 vehicles, Czech daily Hospodarske noviny reported on April 16. Skoda will reportedly make its Karoq SUV and the Seat Ateca SUV there from around 2023, which will make room in Skoda’s Czech Kvasiny plant for a new generation of the VW Passat and Skoda Superb. However, another Czech daily, Lidove noviny reported on April 16 that the Czech Republic might still be in the running for the new factory, while recent Serbian local media reports said that Serbia might still have a chance of attracting the plant.
103 TURKEY Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com