Turkey's Oyak ends deal with Arcelor

Turkey's Oyak Group has ended a partnership with European steel giant Arcelor to buy a minority stake in Turkish steel mill Erdemir due to regulatory concerns. “Oyak's partnership with Arcelor creates problem as regards the competition law”, said a government source. Arcelor and Oyak had no immediate comment. It is reported that the projected partnership would have created a dominant situation and Turkish Competition Board would have given a conditional acceptance as Arcelor has a 40 percent stake in Borcelik. Economic environments consider that Oyak, which solved the financial problems, do not want to risk the Erdemir auction as it provided the source to buy Erdemir without having financial support of Arcelor. Oyak gave the highest bid of $2.77 billion for a 46.12 percent stake in Erdemir in an auction last October.