Koc-Shell group offer highest bid for Tupras

Koc-Shell consortium offered the highest bid of $4.14 billion for the Turkish state oil refiner Tupras on Monday at a sale tender for a 51% stake in the company. Koc-Shell won the tender after bidding against Indian Oil Corp-Calik Enerji group, which withdrew from the auction at the end of the 11th round. Shares were suspended from trading on the Istanbul Stock Exchange until the tender was complete, which is it now, technically. Tupras is slated as the central element of the country's privatization program. At the end of seven rounds of closed bidding TUPRAS Acquisition Cons. OGG-Petrol Ofisi OGG; ENI Refining and Market Division (Italy) and MOL (Hungary), were eliminated for submitting the lowest bid. The remaining six bidders took part in an open auction. OMV (Austria), Anadolu Joint Venture Group and Petrol Ofisi-TAC Joint Venture Group withdrew from the auction on the first round, and OYAK Group withdrew on the ninth round. At the end of the ninth round of the open auction, the highest bid reached $4.06 billion. A previous $1.3 billion attempt to sell the refinery failed last year due to an objection by labor unions.Â