Turkish Company Signs $180 Million Construction Deal in Syria

By Lina Ibrahim and Nayla Razzouk –

Turkey’s Renaissance Holding signed a $180 million agreement to build a real-estate project in Syria, Chairman Erman Ilicak said.

The Taj Halab complex, due to be built in the northern city of Aleppo, will include a shopping mall, movie theaters, hotels, office spaces, art galleries and a convention center, he told a news conference in Damascus today. It will be built on a 200,000 square-meter (2.15 million square feet) area by the end of 2014, Ilicak said after signing the accord with representatives of Syria’s Bena Properties.

Ankara-based Renaissance Holding will have a 30 percent stake in the project with the remaining shares held by Bena Properties, the real-estate arm of Damascus-based Cham Holding.

Syria is encouraging private businesses in its state- dominated economy as it seeks to make up for a decline in oil production. The country opened its first stock exchange in 2009 and in September announced a plan to attract as much as $55 billion in foreign direct investment over the next five years.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nayla Razzouk in Amman at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net; Lina Ibrahim through the newsroom in Dubai at mideastnews@bloomberg.net

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