US company acquires Turkish olive oil and seed firm

ISTANBUL

U.S. agricultural products trader Bunge has moved to increase its presence in Turkey with the acquisition of olive oil and seed oil producer Ana Gıda.

Ana Gıda is the owner of Komili, the market leading olive oil brand in Turkey with a retail market share of more than 30 percent, Bunge said in a statement on Dec. 15. 

Ana Gıda also has other leading brands in the sector, including Kırlangıç and Madra. 

Bunge said it will buy a 55.25 percent stake of Ana Gıda from Anadolu Endüstri Holding and the remaining 44.75 percent from SEEF Foods.

“This acquisition is compatible with our strategy to diversify our product portfolio by focusing more on products with higher added value. We will strengthen our activities in the largest and the fastest growing market of the EMEA region,” said Bunge EMEA CEO Tommy Jensen. 

“The existing distribution network of Ana Gıda will help Bunge to increase its reach and access to customers throughout Turkey,” added Bunge in a written statement.  

Anadolu Endüstri Holding is part of holding company Yazıcılar Holding which said in a separate statement that the value of Ana Gıda was 172.5 million Turkish Liras ($49 million) and that the final sale price would be determined after year-end cash, debt and working capital corrections.

Yazıcılar expects the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.

Bunge has been operating in Turkey since 2000, according to its website; processing and distributing domestically produced and imported oilseeds such as sunflower, canola and soybean at several facilities.

Bunge is operating in over 40 countries with approximately 35,000 employees, according to its website.

 Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat, corn and rice to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in South America. 

Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.