Saudi-based ALJ set to invest $1 bln in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

ALJ already owns 100 percent of Toyota Turkey and plans to invest in the energy, construction, real estate, mining food and tourism sectors. Hürriyet photo

Saudi Arabia-based ALJ group is planning a $1 billion investment in Turkey after inspections in the energy, tourism and real estate sectors. ALJ currently distributes Toyota cars in Turkey and plans to consolidate all its local businesses under one holding.

Toyota Marketing and Sales and ALG Holding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ali Haydar Bozkurt said at a press conference that they have established ALJ Holding AŞ, a local holding, and have begun to build their team and will open their office in Maçka, Istanbul in a few months.

Interested in sustainable investments

“We’ve always put Turkey at the center of our targets and have focused our efforts with this in mind. We have slowly begun to reach the level of investment in Turkey that we have been dreaming of,” said Bozkurt, adding that ALJ is not interested in “hot money” investments and is more interested in long-term, sustainable investments.

Bozkurt explained that ALJ’s current operations in Turkey would continue under the ALJ Holding umbrella and that there were now 300 employees working at the holding, but that this number would soon increase. ALJ’s investments in Turkey to date have reached a quarter of a billion dollars and its existing operations provide ALJ with close to $1 billion in annual turnover.

“We’ve set up an energy company. We haven’t pressed the button yet for any of our operations, but energy is one of the sectors we are very interested in.” Bozkurt said ALJ had decided to increase its investments in Turkey once it realized that the country’s economy had stabilized over the past decade.
“Our goal in the next 10 years is to increase our investments in Turkey by threefold,” he added. ALJ plans to invest in the construction, tourism, energy, real estate, mining, food and foreign trade sectors, and the company has analyzed all the different sectors with the aid of global consulting firms looking for areas of opportunity.

Bozkurt said ALJ was interested in making Turkey a hub and to export value-added products abroad. He added that they could invest up to $1 billion in a project if its 10-year feasibility looked promising. “As long as it’s the right project, there are no limits. We do not have any financing difficulties.” ALJ, a firm with more than 12,000 employees, plans to make Turkey its second-largest market after Saudi Arabia.