By Yeliz Candemir
ISTANBUL (MarketWatch) — Turkish car maker Karsan Otomotiv Sanayii ve Ticaret AS [KARSN.IS] saw its shares fall sharply Monday after a report that the firm failed to secure a contract to produce a new fleet of New York taxis.
Karsan shares were trading more than 6% lower at 1200 GMT, after the New York Times reported that it had seen documents from the New York Taxi Commission confirming that Karsan had failed in its bid to win a tender to produce New York’s “Taxi of Tomorrow.”
According to the New York Times, the rejection came after a review raised concerns about whether the Turkish company, untested in the American market, could reliably execute the high-concept product it had designed.
In a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange, the Bursa-based automaker said it hadn’t yet received any official statement from the New York Taxi Commission. Turkey’s industry ministry, responsible for automotive policy, also said it had received no news on the bid.
The fall in Karsan’s share price came despite an overall rise in the benchmark Istanbul stock exchange as global markets rallied on news that U.S. special forces had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
Karsan, Ford Motor Co. [F] and Nissan Motor Co. [NSANY] have been competing to design a new model for New York’s 26,500 cabs in the next 10 years, including an initial 13,000 vehicles.
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