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shares as a source of lira funding by shorting them.
On July 16, Blackrock said it had increased its stake in Turkish Airlines to 5.06% from 4.96%. On August 23, the investment giant said its stake in Turkish Airlines had declined to 4.96% from 5.24%.
On November 14, BlackRock increased its stake to 5.12% from 4.485% by purchasing 8.69mn shares at an average price of TRY13.57. On January 6, Blackrock’s stake declined to 4.85% from 5.12% after it sold 3.8mn shares at an average price of TRY13.6. That amounted to a 0.3% stake in the airline and 5% of the average daily trading volume.
BlackRock was among investment funds present at a meeting held on November 15 in London between Istanbul mayor and Erdogan administration opponent Ekrem Imamoglu and finance industry representatives.
On June 25 last year, BlackRock said it had increased its stake in Turkish gold miner Koza Altin to 5.01% from 4.94%. On August 16 Blackrock’s stake in Koza Altin declined to 4.99% from 5.01%.
In February 2018, it was the top buyer in largest Turkish electricity distributor Enerjisa Enerji’s initial public offering (IPO).
BlackRock also has stakes in state-controlled Halkbank—currently in a battle with New York prosecutors attempting to bring it to trial on an indictment alleging Iran sanctions-busting—and real estate investment trust Emlak Konut REIT.
The global investment management corporation is at the same time the biggest single holder of Turkish government bonds.
As of February 6, Tupras accounted for 5.11% (fifth largest stock) in BlackRock’s iShares MSCI Turkey ETF while Turkish Airlines accounted for 3.54% (9th), Halkbank 2.18%, Koza Altin 1.76%, Emlak had 1.56% and Enerjisa 1.16%.
9.2.2​ Transport corporate news
● Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines carried a total of 5.7mn passengers in January, marking a slight 0.4% decline from a year ago.
The number of international passengers the flag carrier served increased by a sharp 10% on an annual basis to 3.4mn in the first month of 2020 but the domestic passenger tally plunged 13% y/y to 2.2mn.
The company expanded its fleet to 354 airplanes from 332 in January last year.
Turkish Airlines flew to a total of 318 destinations as of end-January, up from 306 a year ago.
The passenger load rate improved to 80.6% versus 79.4%.
Turkish Airlines said on December 31 that it agreed with Boeing in compensation for grounded and non-delivery Boeing 737 MAX aircraft​.
The airline did not specify the size of the payment but local daily ​Hurriyet reported it was worth $225mn​.
59​ TURKEY Country Report​ March 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com