Turkish banks off‑market sell $254 m of frozen‑fund blue‑chip shares

Banks overseeing Turkey's fund liquidations sold about $254 million of blue‑chip shares held by frozen funds off‑market on Nov 3. The sellers were TC Ziraat Bankasi AS and Turkiye Is Bankasi AS, which placed the shares with investment and pension funds through an off‑exchange transaction. The notice from Turkey's Capital Markets Association valued the sale at 12.7 billion liras, equivalent to $254 million, and said settlement will occur on Wednesday via a conditional transfer mechanism. The shares belonged to companies in the BIST‑30 index and were offered in 20 equal blocks, each block containing all 30 stocks in varying quantities and priced at the Nov 3 closing level, worth 636 million liras per block. Buyers cannot resell the shares on Borsa Istanbul for three months and are barred from using alternative transactions to skirt the restriction. The deal advances the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven asset managers, a process ordered after a crisis that hit more than 455,000 investors and wiped over $130 billion from Turkish stock market values since mid‑September. By removing a large, uncertain holding, the sale could ease pressure on the main stock indexes. The framework law governing the liquidation and compensation was recently approved, and interim payments to affected fund clients began last week.

Context

The overhang of frozen fund holdings has kept many investors away from the market, so clearing these positions is seen as a step toward restoring confidence and normal trading activity.