Is state money also behind the new ‘pool’? (24.03.2018)

Emre Deveci

It has been alleged that Ziraat Bank will be involved in financing the sale of Hürriyet to the Demirören group for 890 million dollars following elimination of its debts, over which, according to an announcement made on the Public Disclosure Platform, negotiations are in progress.

With state-owned Ziraat Bank alleged to be part of the interbank consortium set up to handle the financing totalling 1.1 billion dollars, a top-ranking official of the bank who spoke to Cumhuriyet did not deny the allegation and indicated that they could not comment until the sales negotiations had been completed. It also emerged that Ziraat Bank supplied a 200 million dollar portion of the 630 million dollar pool created for the purchase of Sabah and Atv owned by the Çalık Group. For its part, the Çalık Group which had bought the Sabah group from the Savings and Deposits Insurance Fund for 1.1 billion dollars, took out loans totalling 750 million dollars of 375 million dollars each from Halk Bank and Vakıfbank. At that time, Hüseyin Aydın undersigned the loan in his capacity as Halk Bank CEO. Hüseyin Aydın currently holds the position of Ziraat Bank CEO.

Tax fines and tax settlement procedures have been an important tool in the process which saw the government getting Doğan Media to toe the desired line. A settlement was reached over Petrol Ofisi’s 1.2 billion lira tax debt prior to the 2007 general elections and Doğan Group reduced the amount owed to 275 million lira. Doğan, which was subsequently handed down a 4.9 billion tax fine, once more reached a settlement just before the 2011 elections and the fine was reduced to 940 million lira.

The announcement from Doğan Holding posted on the Public Disclosure Platform states, “Negotiations have commenced with Demirören Holding A.Ş. over the sale and transfer of the entirety of the shares we own in a significant portion of the capital of our direct and indirect subsidiaries which are active in the written and visual media sector, including Doğan Dağıtım Satış Pazarlama Matbaacılık Ödeme Aracılık ve Tahsilat Sistemleri A.Ş. (Yaysat), Doğan Gazetecilik A.Ş. (Posta, Fanatik), Doğan Haber Ajansı A.Ş., Doğan TV Holding A.Ş., DTV Haber ve Görsel Yayıncılık A.Ş. (Kanal D TV), Doruk Televizyon ve Radyo Yayıncılık A.Ş. (CNN Türk TV), Hürriyet Gazetecilik ve Matbaacılık A.Ş. and Mozaik İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. (D Smart) for the ‘enterprise value’ of 1,100,000,000 dollars and ‘share value’ of 890,000,000 dollars by means of eliminating financial liabilities. When there are developments in this matter, an additional public announcement will be made as per the relevant legislation.” Bloomberg has written that Doğan Medya has been forced to sell out at one quarter of the market value it peaked at in the mid-2000s. It is furthermore noted that the price is a good one in line with the group’s current financial tables.

Share price increase

Shares in Doğan Holding and Hürriyet, which rose by nearly twenty per cent the day before yesterday following news of the sale, increased in value by around twenty per cent yesterday. Doğan Holding shares opened yesterday at the upper price limit, registering a 19.54% increase, as did those of Hürriyet, amounting to an increase of 19.51%. Both shares have thus increased by around 40% in two days.

Mutlu sold out, too

Sabah newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, Zafer Mutlu, has announced that he has sold his shares in Doğan Gazetecilik. The announcement made on the Public Disclosure Platform indicates that Mutlu sold 560,000 shares yesterday. The shares were sold at prices between 3.85-4 lira. As such, Mutlu earned between 2.156 million and 2.24 million lira from the sale.

Talk of the son-in-law’s return

The sale of Doğan Media Group to the Demirören Group has brought various allegations in its wake. It is alleged that, following the 1.1 billion dollar sale, Aydın Doğan’s son-in-law Mehmet Ali Yalçındağ will be brought in to head the Doğan Media Group. It had come to light in certain of Yalçındağ’s emails that became public knowledge that he was trying along with ruling party representatives to change the Sedat Ergin management at Hürriyet and create a new management with individuals who were not in the opposition. Yalçındağ, who said with reference to the emails in question, “Unfortunately, my computer was hacked somehow. All my daily reports and the diary I called a report – I have kept a diary for 22 years. Unfortunately, they have all been stolen and seized,” later stepped down as Doğan Media Group CEO.

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