According to a written statement by the TMSF, 63 companies under Merkez Media Group, which includes Sabah daily and TV channel ATV, knowingly concealed protocols and contracts between Dinç Bilgin -- the former owner of the group and the bankrupt bank Etibank A.Ş. -- and Turgay Ciner. The documents were signed on June 12, 2002, and August 8, 2002. The statement said Bilgin and Ciner acted together to deceive the TMSF in their fraudulent actions. TMSF president Ahmet Ertürk appointed a new board of management to the confiscated company. Ciner, on the other hand, is still preserving his silence.
According to a written statement by the TMSF, 63 companies under Merkez Media Group, which includes Sabah daily and TV channel ATV, knowingly concealed protocols and contracts between Dinç Bilgin -- the former owner of the group and the bankrupt bank Etibank A.Ş. -- and Turgay Ciner. The documents were signed on June 12, 2002, and August 8, 2002. The statement said Bilgin and Ciner acted together to deceive the TMSF in their fraudulent actions. TMSF president Ahmet Ertürk appointed a new board of management to the confiscated company. Ciner, on the other hand, is still preserving his silence.
The TMSF launched the takeover operation on early Sunday morning. Prior to the takeover, board members conducted a meeting in great secrecy on the issue. Even their corporate attorneys did not know about the meeting, but a private law office participated in the meeting to consult them. The meeting finished at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday and afterwards the takeover operation was launched. Twenty security officers stood guard outside the ATV and Sabah buildings in order not to allow documents to be removed from the building.
TMSF officers and attorneys then went to the ATV-Sabah head office and started legal action. Approximately 150 TMSF officers and attorneys went to the Merkez Media Group’s offices and print houses in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Adana and other cities all over Turkey. But no action has been taken against Ciner’s other companies in different sectors.
The newly recognized protocols showed that Bilgin had not transferred all his shares in the group to Ciner and his secret partnership continued in the group. The TMSF announced that with the emergence of these concealed protocols, the other protocol made between Bilgin and Ciner Group had become inoperative, which is why the TMSF took over the media companies that Bilgin had transferred to Ciner. According to the information gathered, the documents were leaked to the TMSF by the Bilgin Group.
According to the claims, the Bilgin Group had leaked the protocols because of Ciner’s desire to sell the media group companies. It was also claimed that Bilgin wanted the TMSF to deduct the revenues gained by the sale of these companies from his previous debts on the basis of these protocols. TMSF officials said that they did not have any information about the sale but confirmed that the protocols had approved the secret partnership between Ciner and Bilgin.
After the takeover of the media group, all eyes have turned to Park Enerji, Ciner’s energy investment company, which he used as collateral while he was purchasing ATV and Sabah. The TMSF announced that they also began to investigate other companies of Ciner’s aside from media companies. However Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) President Yusuf Günay said at a meeting that he thought the takeover of Merkez Media Group by the TMSF would not affect Park Enerji’s recent application for a nuclear power plant.
An agreement was signed between the TMSF and Bilgin’s media group on Nov. 17, 2003 in order to pay his debts stemming from the bankrupt Etibank without any repayment schedule. The media group was transferred to the Merkez Media Group for $433 million, $18.5 million in cash and $19.5 million in semi-annual payments within 10 years. The payments were going to be made to TMSF.
TMSF President Ahmet Ertürk had given the signals of the takeover in a TV program on CNN Türk. He had said there may be some developments on the Etibank issue. Ertürk said that they were going to cancel the repayment protocols with bankrupt banks’ owners because of some concealed protocols they had acquired.
Newspaper Web sites updated their headlines right after the announcement of the takeover. Online news services began to provide information on the developments at the same time. Newspapers use the official notification of TMSF in their announcements. Zaman’s headline read “TMSF takes over Sabah and ATV,” Hürriyet’s read “TMSF takes over Sabah Group” and Milliyet’s read “TMSF takes over Sabah and ATV.” Yeni Şafak said “They misled the Fund.”
The Merkez Media Group kept silent on the takeover. Ciner was reportedly planning to file a stay of execution lawsuit. The major media companies affected include Sabah, Yeni Asır, Takvim and Fotomaç dailies; FHM, Marie Claire, Forbes, Aktüel and Oto Haber magazines; and ATV and Kanal 1 TV channels. Meanwhile transactions of the group subsidiaries’ stocks in the İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) were temporarily halted.
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