Turkish Show TV sale annulled

June 3, 2014 08.11 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul


The Turkish Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has again seized control of Show TV.

According to Zaman, this follows the detection of irregularities by a court in the sale of the TV channel to Ciner Media Holding in 2013.

TMSF initially seized control of a number of assets belonging to Çukurova Holding last year in order to collect a debt of $455.3 million from the company.

Those assets included Show TV, which was sold in only 15 days, and without a tender, to Ciner Media Holding for $402 million.

However, the TMSF only received $97 million from the sale, with the remainder of the money being used to pay off the channel’s debt.

This led to criticism from the entrepreneur Erol Askoy, who holds a stake in the company, and he subsequently sued over the sale.

An investigation by the 4th Istanbul Administrative Court, which eventually ruled against the sale, prompted TMSF’s latest action.