Doğan Holding to shift its focus to energy projects

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Doğan Holding Board Chairwoman Begümhan Doğan Faralyalı (C), CEO Yahya Üzdiyen (L) and CFO Ahmet Toksoy are seen at a press conference. DHA photo

Turkey’s Doğan Holding has announced its determination to boost its presence in oil exploration and production, looking to take a share from the attractive northern Iraqi and African fields.

“Our target is to grow in the energy sector by forming a balanced portfolio. Within this direction, our interest in regional energy production and distribution opportunities continues,” Doğan Holding Board Chairwoman Begümhan Doğan Faralyalı said yesterday at the group’s annual evaluation meeting, where the group’s financial outlook and future plans were shared.

The company, which mainly operates in the media, energy, tourism and retail sectors, already owns 20 percent of a northern Iraqi oilfield through its 50 percent partnership with Gas Plus Arbil but is looking at expansion in Africa.

Doğan Holding CEO Yahya Üzdiyen said the company aimed to reduce the weight of the media sector within its portfolio from 80 percent to around 50 percent, as the company has aims to be a middle-scale player in oil production. 

“Therefore not only in northern Iraq, but also in other oil regions, we will seek opportunities,” he said, adding that Doğan was working in Yemen and some African countries, but there had been no concrete development yet. The company found oil in the northern Iraqi field and will begin production soon.

National lottery bid

Doğan will also keep an eye out for opportunities in the electricity distribution sector, which was completely privatized after the finalization of the remaining four grids’ tenders. Üzdiyen said the company had not placed offers in latest tenders as it found the prices too high, adding that it thought secondary opportunities might occur in the sector. 

In addition to its plans of diversifying its focus in the electricity and oil businesses, Doğan Holding is looking to participate in the National Lottery privatization tender jointly with a foreign partner. Üzdiyen said the negotiations with the strategic foreign partner were ongoing. 

Faralyalı said, still media would remain the top sector for the group. She said the company’s search for inorganic growth in online media and foreign media investments is continuing.

Doğan recorded profit for last year with 155.7 million Turkish Liras net profit with raising its sales revenues by 10 percent to 3.2 billion liras, after last year’s loss.