Istanbul: The Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank’s investment committee is to discuss buying a stake in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) in the second half of December, the stock exchange’s chairman Himmet Karadag told Reuters.
In an interview, Karadag said BIST would probably announce the advisers for its IPO next month and that the exchange’s free float must exceed 1 billion lira (Dh955m, $260 million). The IPO is planned to take place in the second quarter of 2018.
“They [IDB] are to discuss [buying a stake] in their investment committee this month. We did not discuss a specific level but we want the IDB to be a strategic partner of the bourse,” he said.
Karadag told Reuters in April that the IDB was in talks with the bourse on buying a stake.
He said on Wednesday BIST could consider listing in other countries’ bourses after the IPO and it had held talks with Hong Kong on this issue.
The bourse has informed the government about work it has conducted on issuing securities on BIST in currencies such as the dollar and euro, he said.
The exchange was also working on bringing to the bourse public private partnerships and wanted to securitise projects such as Kanal Istanbul and Istanbul’s third airport, he said.
He added that the exchange was working on a virtual currency project dubbed BISTcoin, using blockchain technology.
