Turkish Aerospace Industries to go public

[Babur Han]

Turkish Aerospace Industries to go public

Thursday, May 19, 2011
ÜMİT ENGİNSOY
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News



Turkey's first drone airplane, the Anka, is seen during a roll-out ceremony near Ankara at the Turkish Aerospace Industries in this July 16, 2010, photo. TAI, the developer of the vehicle, is planning to trade on the Istanbul bourse, an official says. AP photo.

Turkey’s government authorities are drafting a road map to float Turkish Aerospace Industries, or TAI, the country’s second largest defense company, on the stock exchange, a senior procurement official said Thursday.

“We hope TAI will gain a much better corporate posture after part of its shares go public on the Istanbul bourse,” the official told the Hürriyet Daily News.

When the plan is enacted, TAI will be Turkey’s third defense company listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange after Aselsan, a military electronics firm, and Otokar, a privately owned armored vehicles manufacturer.

Parallel to efforts to bolster the local industry, Turkish authorities are also fine-tuning plans for consolidation on a corporate level.

The procurement official said some of the smaller companies could be merged into the independent corporate identities of the country’s top two defense manufacturers, Aselsan and TAI, both based in Ankara.

Aselsan is a public company owned by the Turkish Armed Forces Support Foundation. All of Turkey’s top five defense companies are owned by the same foundation. The company reported $792 million in sales in 2010 and aims to hit $850 million this year and $1 billion in 2012.

TAI, which is also owned by the same foundation, was created in the late 1980s to carry out partial production and assembly of the F-16 fighter aircraft, made by the U.S. firm Lockheed Martin. In its early years, it also assembled the Spanish-made CN-235 light transport aircraft and some utility helicopters.

Now it is the prime contractor in building 60 T-129 attack helicopters developed by the Italian firm AgustaWestland for the Turkish Army.

It also has been selected as prime contractor in Turkey’s co-production of at least 109 T-70 utility helicopters, Turkish versions of the U.S. firm Sikorsky Aircraft’s S-70i Black Hawk International.

TAI also is co-producing the KT-1 basic trainer aircraft with South Korea, developing its own basic trainer aircraft, and is building Turkey’s first medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, the Anka.

“The idea is to reinforce local companies through mergers and acquisitions but Aselsan and TAI, two pillars of our defense industry, will remain independent,” the procurement official said. He did not detail these merger plans, citing corporate secrecy.

Turkish Aerospace Industries to go public - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review