Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey raised $1.2 billion by selling three power grids as it seeks to raise revenue and hand responsibility for developing the electricity network to non- government companies.

Eti Gumus AS, a Turkish silver mining company owned by Yildizlar SSS Holding, bid $485 million at an auction in Ankara for the Osmangazi network in the west, where it owns a ceramic plant. Calik Holding AS, which has interests in energy and media, bid $441.5 million for the northern Yesilirmak grid. A third sale of the northern Coruh grid drew a winning $227 million bid from the Aksa Group.

Turkey is selling its 20 electricity distribution networks under a plan to boost investment in an industry where demand is rising about 8 percent a year. Payments for the three grids sold today are likely to come next year, when the government aims to raise 10.4 billion liras ($7 billion) from asset sales.

“The offers were higher than expected so it’s good as far as privatization targets are concerned,” said Ozlem Bayraktar Korcan, economist for Unicorn Capital in Istanbul. “It’s also a step toward a more liberalised electricity sector but we also need to see steps toward selling power producers.”

Calik may bid in other electricity sales too, Saim Dinc, chief executive of Calik Enerji Sanayi & Ticaret AS, told reporters after the second auction.

The company is still evaluating how to pay for the grid, which has about 1.5 million subscribers in and around the cities of Samsun and Ordu, he said. Calik and Italy’s Eni SpA are planning to build an oil pipeline linking Samsun with the Mediterranean coast at Ceyhan.

More Sales

Calik Holding AS, managed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, paid the government $1.25 billion last year for Turkey’s second-biggest media group after winning loans from state-run banks Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS and Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi TAO.

The asset sales agency said today it plans to sell four more grids next week, without naming them.

The government may prefer to delay selling the biggest grids, such as the one in Istanbul, until the economy is stronger, said Ezgi Ozturk, an analyst at Oyak Securities in Istanbul.

Deficiencies

The grid purchased by Eti Gumus “covers an industrial region but has many deficiencies we will address,” Chairman Sabahattin Yildiz told reporters in Ankara. Yildizlar Holding also owns ceramic plants in the area covered by the network, which has 1.3 subscribers in the western provinces of Eskisehir and Afyon.

Twelve bidders registered for that sale, including CEZ AS, the biggest Czech utility, in partnership with its local unit Akenerji Elektrik Uretim AS. Ayen Enerji AS, a Turkish power producer, also bid.

Aksa Elektrik Perakende Satis AS won the final sale of the day, bidding $227 million for the Coruh power distribution grid in northeastern Turkey. Aksa, part of a group that’s in talks with Russia’s OAO Gazprom to distribute gas, beat off Calik and three other bidders in the auction.

The Coruh network has 990,000 subscribers and loses 10.7 percent of its power to theft or wastage, the highest proportion of the three grids on sale today. Aksa plans to invest $120 million on the network over three or four years, Chairman Cemil Kazanci told reporters after the sale.

RWE AG, ENBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG and EWE AG, which had expressed interest in today’s sales, pulled out before the final applications last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Bryant in Ankara at sbryant5@bloomberg.net; Ali Berat Meric in Ankara at

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 10:42 EST