Page 69 - TURKRptNov19

● Istanbul Airport
Istanbul Airport, the mega airport with ambitions to become the busiest in the world, has served 40.5mn passengers since it was officially inaugurated in September last year, according to Turkish Transport Minister Cahit Turhan.
The airport, however, did not process substantial passenger numbers until April this year when it took the place of Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport as Turkey’s main international airport. Flights were switched away from Ataturk.
The plan is for the giant airport to eventually serve 200mn passengers annually at full capacity after the completion of all four of its development phases by 2028, at which point it should boast six runways.
● Others
Turkish military pension fund Oyak said it has launched due diligence to buy fuel distribution companies Total Turkey and Moil from Demiroren Group.
Demiroren stepped into the local energy industry in 1976 with its Milangaz brand, which sells bottled LPG. In 2016, the group acquired Total Oil’s Turkey operations.
Total Turkey and Moil have a total of 900 gas stations across the country.
Oyak’s statement on talks to buy Total Turkey and Moil assets came amid massive layoffs at Turkey’s leading newspaper Hurriyet, owned by Demiroren group.
Even though the management has not made any public comment on the sacking of at least 50 journalists and staff—performed in a rather unprecedented manner, such as by sending notifications to employees’ homes informing them of terminated contracts, while some employees even figured out they’d been fired when access to their computers and emails at work was denied—there is speculation suggesting that Hurriyet—a publicly traded company on the Borsa Istanbul—is laying off unionised journalists and other staff.
There is also speculation that Demiroren is planning to divest its media assets.
Demiroren bought dailies Hurriyet and Posta, TV channels Kanal D and CNN Turk, Dogan News Agency and Dogan Media International—as well as the licences of Radyo D and CNN Turk Radyo—for $893mn from Dogan Holding in 2018.
Demiroren reportedly took a $675mn loan from state-owned lender Ziraat to finance the acquisition of Dogan’s media assets. There is widespread speculation that Demiroren Group has run into financial problems since the acquisition.
69​ TURKEY Country Report​ November 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com