A Turkish government team visited Portugal recently to meet potential investors for Ankara's plan to privatize billions of dollars worth of state-run highways and bridges, three sources familiar with the situation said.

Turkish government privatization board ‌officials and EY, the global consultancy that was hired last year for the sale, held the ​meetings in recent weeks, two sources told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

A Turkish delegation met on Thursday this week with senior executives at Brisa, Portugal's largest highway operator, at the request ⁠of the Turkish side to discuss the privatization plan, a third person familiar with the ​matter said. The outcome of the meeting was unclear.

Brisa, which in 2011 had said it was interested ⁠in an earlier Turkish privatization drive, declined to comment on any meetings or plans to take part in the privatization process.

Turkey's privatization board did not immediately comment on the matter. EY declined to comment.

The bridges include two spanning the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, ‌which are seen as the "crown jewels" given that they operate at full capacity and ​generate consistent revenues. Some 430,000 ‌vehicles passed over them daily in 2024.

In 2013, Turkey canceled a $5.7-billion bid to privatize the highways and bridges via a 25-year concession contract, ‌with then Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan saying at the time the bid price was too low and floating $7 billion as a minimum price tag.

Turkey does not plan to sell the assets outright but is looking ⁠to invite tenders for concession rights, Transport Minister ‌Abdulkadir Uraloglu said last month.

The ⁠government aims to boost privatization revenues and cut infrastructure maintenance costs.

Turkey's General Directorate of Highways operates around 2,300 km of highways, most ⁠of them ⁠busy northwest routes near Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Another 1,500 km of roads are privately operated. Data shows that slightly more than half of all ‌traffic uses state bridges and highways.

In 2011, when Brisa was interested in Turkey's earlier privatization drive, the Portuguese group's then international division chief Guilherme Magalhaes said it hoped to make Turkey its second-largest market.

The Portuguese company, which operates ‌14 highways ​in Portugal with a total length ‌of about 1,500 km, has since sold off its international highway concessions in Brazil and the Netherlands, though it is still operating in the United States.

It was not clear whether ​other Portuguese companies met with the Turkish team, or plan to do so.