Turkey earned 2.42 billion liras ($1.9 billion) in the initial public offering of a 15 percent stake in the Turk Telekomunikasyon AS phone company, making it the country's record IPO.

Turkey's privatization board sold Turk Telekom shares for 4.60 liras ($3.66) each, close to the top range of 4.70 liras. International investors bid for 4.3 times the stock on offer, and domestic investors for 4.7 times the available shares.

Experts said the Telekom price is little changed from 2005, when the Privatizatiom Board sold a 55 percent stake in Turk Telekom to Saudi Oger Ltd.

Turkey sold 60 percent of the shares to foreign investors because it needs international capital to help offset a widening current account deficit.

Turk Telekom is scheduled to begin trading on the Istanbul Stock Exchange May 15. The share sale values the company at $12.7 billion, compared with $11.9 billion when Oger bought its stake.

Previously, Turkey's largest IPO was last year's sale of a 25 percent stake in state-owned lender Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, which raised just under $1.9 billion.