The long-awaited privatisation sale of the first tranche of shares in Turk Telekom will take place in January, Transport & Communications Minister Necdet Menzir told local Yeni Yuznil newspaper on 18 August. Before that can happen, the law needs to be changed to make the company a corporation rather than a state-owned enterprise. Parliament will look at the law in November and the changes should be passed by the end of this year, the minister said.

A new chief, Ugur Bayar, has just been appointed to head the Privatisation Authority (PA). The former acting head of the PA,Yalcin Atli, said earlier this month that the government would finish off the sales of its holdings in several small companies soon before moving onto bigger sales, and would take a decision soon on privatising Etibank and the state's share in Eregli Iron & Steelworks (MEED 15:8:97).

A PA spokeswoman said on 19 August that negotiations were almost complete on the sale of state-owned hotel chain Turban. Newspapers say that the prospective bidders are mostly local construction or tourism companies. The PA was also due to meet a number of companies to discuss the sale of two marinas and a holiday village on the Aegean and a hotel in central Turkey