Gaziantep Cimento was offered for sale at a starting price of $47m by Turkish Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a fund that manages banks taken into receivership by the state. Gaziantep Cimento, southeastern Turkey, was set up in 1961. Uzan family paid $52.7m for it in 1992.
The cement factory, which holds 19 per cent of the market in the southeastern part of the country, registered a turnover of 35.3 mln new Turkish lira (US$25.8m) from January to September 2005. Gaziantep Cimento has an annual capacity of 495,000t of clinker and 1,089,000t of cement.