Competition authority approves share transfer of Hyundai Assan

ISTANBUL

The Turkish competition authority has approved the sale of 30 percent shares of Hyundai Assan from Turkey’s Kibar Holding to Hyundai Motor.

The South Korean automotive giant, the world’s fifth-biggest auto group, was already holding 70 percent of stocks in the Turkish automotive company.

The application seeking permission to put Hyundai Motor in full control of the Turkish company was made last month approved later on.

Hyundai Assan, which is running a plant with an annual capacity of 230,000 units in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, exported 150,000 vehicles to the European market last year. However, during the pandemic, exports declined by some 10 percent.

In the domestic market, it ranked ninth with 25,831 car sales in the first 11 months of 2020.

“The decision should be deemed as an attempt to use sources more efficiently,” Kibar Holding Chair Ali Kibar said last month, hinting at plans of new investments in “more profitable areas.”

On Jan. 8, Hyundai Motor said it was in early talks with Apple for an electric car and battery tie-up after local media reports on the prospective collaboration sent Hyundai shares up by 25 percent.

Hyundai and Apple already work together on CarPlay, Apple’s software for connecting iPhones to a variety of vehicles.

Hyundai does not have dedicated electric car factories in the United States, and it may have to gain consent from its powerful union in South Korea where it seeks to build electric vehicles (EVs) overseas.

Top international automakers - including Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Renault and Toyota - have factories in Turkey, one of the world’s top auto sale markets.

Turkey’s total car and light commercial vehicle sales jumped by 61.3 percent year on year, reaching 772,788 in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Turkish automotive sector’s exports declined by 16 percent last year compared to 2019, according to the Automotive Industry Exporters Association (OİB).

Nonetheless, automakers stayed on top of Turkey’s exporting sectors with a total volume of $25.5 billion, OİB said.