Turkey courts Portuguese investors for highway privatisation push

ISTANBUL - A Turkish government team visited Portugal recently to meet ‌potential investors for Ankara's plan to privatise billions of dollars worth of state-run highways and bridges, three sources familiar with the situation said.

Turkish government privatisation board officials and EY, the global consultancy that was hired last year for the sale, held the meetings in recent weeks, two sources said, requesting anonymity.

A Turkish delegation met on Thursday this week senior executives at Brisa, Portugal's largest highway operator, at the request of the Turkish side ⁠to discuss the privatisation plan, a third person familiar with the matter said. The outcome of the meeting was unclear.

Brisa, which in 2011 had said it was interested in an earlier Turkish privatisation drive, declined to comment on any meetings or plans to take part in the privatisation process.

Turkey's privatisation board did not immediately comment on the matter. EY declined to comment.

The bridges include two spanning the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, which are seen as the "crown jewels" given that they operate at full capacity and generate consistent revenues. Some 430,000 vehicles passed over them daily in 2024.

In 2013, Turkey cancelled a $5.7-billion bid to privatise the highways and bridges via a 25-year concession contract, with then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ‌saying ⁠at the time the bid price was too low and floating $7 billion as a minimum price tag.

Turkey does not plan to sell the assets outright but is looking to invite tenders for concession rights, Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said last month.

The government aims to boost privatisation revenues and cut infrastructure maintenance costs.

Turkey's General Directorate of Highways operates around 2,300 km of highways, most of them ⁠busy northwest routes near Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Another 1,500 km of roads are privately operated. Data shows that slightly more than half of all traffic uses state bridges and highways.

In 2011, when Brisa was interested in Turkey's earlier privatisation drive, the Portuguese ​group's then international ⁠division chief Guilherme Magalhaes said it hoped to make Turkey its second-largest market.

The Portuguese company, which operates 14 highways in Portugal with a total length of about 1,500 km, has since sold off its international highway concessions in Brazil ⁠and the Netherlands, though it is still operating in the United States.

It was not clear whether other Portuguese companies met with the Turkish team, or plan to do so.