Turkey in $1.3bn privatisation

Some employees are against the move

Turkish authorities have approved the privatisation of 66% of the country's state-run oil refiner Tupras for $1.3bn, officials have said.

The company will be sold to the German-based chemicals company Efremov-Kautschuk, Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan said.

Opposition groups accuse the state of selling the company off cheaply.

The government, however, is under IMF pressure to accelerate privatisation to put its economy back on track.

Joint bid

"The Tupras sale is a landmark in that it would provide the government with necessary impulse to push forward with the so long ailing sell-off process," said Simon Quijano-Evans of Bank Austria Creditanstalt.

Efremov-Kautschuk made the highest bid in the tender for the Tupras stake jointly with Turkish company Zorlu Holding.

The remaining Tupras shares had been sold to the public in 1991.

The company ranks itself as the seventh biggest refiner in Europe.

It controls about 86% of the country's refinery capacity, according to company data.

In November the government reportedly cancelled a tender for the sale of state monopoly Tekel's tobacco concern, saying the bids were too low.