Turkish billionaire sells top Istanbul mall to Qatar for $1 billion
Turkish billionaire Ferit Şahenk
has agreed to sell one of Istanbul’s top shopping malls to Qatar’s
sovereign wealth fund for about $1 billion, Dünya newspaper reported.
The sale of İstinye
Park, located on the European side of Istanbul, to Qatar Holding, the
investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is expected to be
officially announced in the coming days, according to Dünya, which did not say
how it got the information.
Şahenk, 56, is among several
billionaire Turkish businessmen who have struggled financially since a currency
crisis swept through financial markets in the summer of 2018. He has agreed
with banks to restructure billions of dollars of foreign currency debt, which
grew more expensive to repay after the lira slumped. The lira has since pegged
fresh record lows against the dollar and euro.
Şahenk, who controls conglomerate
Doguş
Holding, has also sold marinas in Turkey, Greece, the United Arab Emirates and
Croatia to investment company CVC Capital this year as he offloads assets. He
has also put several luxury hotels up for sale.
The Turkish lira is now worth 7.77 per dollar
compared with around 1.6 per dollar at the start of 2011.
The billionaire became a symbol of Turkey’s economic
and business successes during the 2000s through his ownership of leading
Turkish bank Garanti and media companies. But he sold shares in Garanti to
Spain’s BBVA in 2010 and borrowed more capital to switch into the property and
construction industries, which helped spur an economic boom in Turkey before
the lira’s collapse.
International ratings agencies are now warning of an
increase in banks’ non-performing loans, particularly those denominated in
foreign currency, after a latest sell-off in the lira, which prompted the
central bank to hike interest rates to 15 percent from 10.25 percent last week.
The lira hit a record low of 8.58 per dollar on Nov. 6.
İstinye Park was built in 2007 and
has a total floor space of 90,000 square meters. It contains 300 retail units.
