[December 23, 2013] Turkey's Kalyon Group receives approval to acquire Calik Holding's media assets. [IntelliNews - Weekly Reports] Tweet (IntelliNews - Weekly Reports Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Turkey's competition authority announced that it has approved the sale of Turkish conglomerate Calik Holding's Turkuvaz Group, which owns popular TV channel ATV and daily newspaper Sabah, to local Kalyon Group's Zirve Holding for an undisclosed sum. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Omer Faruk Kalyoncu, deputy chairman of local Kalyon Insaat, was getting ready to expand his company's operations into media and finance sectors. Omer Faruk Kalyoncu established a company, namely Ayyildiz Holding, in August and turned its name to Zirve Holding in October, and also raised the company's paid-in capital to TRY 380mn (EUR 133mn) from TRY 50,000, according to Istanbul's commercial registry office, and these moves were seen as Kalyoncu's preparations to expand his family's business operations to media and finance sectors, Bloomberg reported. Kalyon group is currently active in construction and energy industries. Last month, Kalyon was said to be interested in bidding Calik Holding's popular TV channel ATV together with Limak, however, the company had denied the rumours. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Calik Holding was close to sell its media assets, including ATV and Sabah, to an unnamed Turkish company. In October, Qatar Investment Authority's Lusail International Media Company had applied to Turkey's competition authority to transfer its 25% stake in ATV to the majority owner Calik Group and following the acquisition, Calik increased its stake in the company to 100%. Calik's media operations posted a turnover of USD 491mn in 2012, down from USD 600mn in 2011 while its media operations posted a loss of USD 68mn in 2012, down from USD 193mn of losses recorded in 2011, according to Calik Holding's official website. Calik had bought ATV and the Sabah newspaper from the Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) in an auction in 2007 for USD 1.1bn. Calik had obtained a USD 375mn loan from state-owned lenders Halkbank and Vakifbank to finance the ATV and Sabah acquisition. Calik, later in September 2012, mandated Goldman Sachs to sell these media assets. In May, local media outlets reported that Time Warner agreed to buy ATV for USD 750mn from Calik. But, in August local newspaper Today's Zaman reported that the Turkish government might block a possible sale of ATV to Time Warner as it favours a local group, namely Cengiz-Limak-Kolin consortium. Abraaj Capital and TPG Capital were also said to be interested in Calik's media assets       (c) 2013 Emerging Markets Direct Media Holdings LLC Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]