Invest News DetailHurriyet Daily News - The Spanish banking group BBVA’s (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) November 2 announcement that the company will buy a stake in Türkiye’s Garanti Bank is the country’s top merger & acquisition (M&A) this year, according to data from mergermarket, an M&A intelligence service. With a transaction value of EUR 4.2 billion, the deal surpassed the value of the August 9 privatization of Bogazici Electricity Distribution Grid. The rights to operate the grid were sold to the Turkish companies Is-kaya and MMEKA for EUR 2.261 billion. The top 20 Turkish M&A deals tracked by mergermarket represent a huge increase compared to crisis-hit 2009. Last year’s highest-volume deal was the privatization of the Osmangazi electricity distribution grid for EUR 327 million. According to an e-mailed report from mergermarket, the privatization of the Gediz electricity distribution grid and the sale of 54.17 percent of fuel retailer Petrol Ofisi to Austria’s OMV ranked as the third and fourth top M&A deals, with volumes of EUR 1.452 billion and EUR 999 million, respectively.