Sabancı exploring international partnerships: CEO

ISTANBUL

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Turkey’s second-biggest conglomerate, the Sabancı Group, is considering international partnerships for strengthening energy management and manufacturing operations to reduce its reliance on the banking business.

Sabancı Holding CEO Zafer Kurtul has revealed the plans to The Nikkei, saying collaborations with Japanese companies in autoparts and lithium-ion batteries may be explored further.

Kurtul also expressed interest in Japanese energy management technologies in the energy field.

The Sabancı Group, founded in 1926, has partnered with Bridgestone in tire production and sells Komatsu construction equipment with Marubeni.

In Southeast Asia, the company hopes to expand the supply of car tire materials from Thai and Indonesian facilities.

Sabancı Holding reported revenue of 48 billion liras ($17.6 billion) and net income of 2.2 billion liras in 2015. It controls a fifth of the Turkish electricity market, handling everything from power generation to sales with German partner E.ON. It also operates supermarkets with French partner Carrefour.

Banking operations account for around 45 percent of the conglomerate’s total assets.

The company aims to increase the share of its energy and industrial businesses to 40-45 percent.