Sabancı eyes control in retailer

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Sabancı chair Güler Sabancı delivers her speech at the annual press conference of the group in Istanbul. AA photo

Turkish conglomerate Sabancı Holding aims to increase to a majority level its share in retailer Carrefoursa, a joint venture in Turkey between two groups, said its top executive Zafer Kurtul Feb. 24, adding that Sabancı will soon start talks with the French retailer.

“Food retail is an important sector, if we can reach majority shares in Carrefour we could consider organic or inorganic growth. We will start talks with Carrefour soon,” said Kurtul, speaking at a press meeting in Istanbul.

Currently a 52.2 percent share of the joint venture is owned by Carrefour and 33.8 percent is owned by Sabancı Holding. A total of 2.2 percent shares of Carrefoursa are traded on the Istanbul bourse.
“We are expecting a 20 percent jump in our revenues and to reach $27.6 billion this year,” said Kurtul, adding that Sabancı Holding plans to make investments around $2 billion in 2012 and employ around 3,000 people.

Kurtul said nearly 68 percent of the investments will be in the energy sector, and that the group of companies in the holding had reached an estimated $22.9 billion consolidated net sales last year. It aims to hit $27.6 billion in revenues by the end of this year.

The group is also planning the public offering of Teknosa, the electronics retailer arm of Sabancı Holding this year, and for Aviva, the insurance and pension subsidiary, next year. Sabancı also plans to take Enerjisa, the energy subsidiary of the conglomerate, and Diasa, the discount food retail company, public in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

5 percent growth possible
“It would be no surprise for Turkey to reach a gross domestic product growth of 5 percent this year,” said Güler Sabancı, noting the optimism for financial markets started in the first two months of this year. “Turkey’s exports were affected by the Eurozone crisis last year,” he added.

Addressing journalists, Kurtul said “unfortunately 8 percent growth is not sustainable for Turkey.”
The domestic demand will not be as strong as the past two years, he said, and exports would be adversely affected by falling demand in the first half.

Domestic credit growth will be slow throughout this year. Stringent fiscal policies will continue and the current account deficit will shrink $77 billion, down to $65-$70 billion this year, Kurtul added.