Tesco Kipa ends talks with Turkey’s Beğendik on store sales

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Tesco’s subsidiary in Turkey has decided to hang onto some of its stores instead of selling them to rival Turkish retailer Beğendik after their performance improved strongly, it said on Jan. 2.

Beğendik’s chief executive said in September that the company planned to buy 10 stores from Tesco Kipa as part of expansion plans that could ultimately lead to a stock market listing.

“There is always a possibility that negotiations end without reaching a deal. The stores which were the subject of the deal are good stores, with great colleagues and strong improvement in performance over the past six months,” Tesco Kipa Chief Executive Bill O’Neill said in a statement.

“We didn’t feel the deal was right for Kipa,” the statement said.

Beğendik runs 46 supermarkets and 13 hypermarkets throughout Turkey. It aimed to almost treble sales to 1.5 billion lira ($500 million) in 2015, CEO Hacı Beğendik said in September.

Domestic players such as Beğendik have benefited as international chains have pulled back from Turkey’s highly competitive retail market. Beğendik bought 12 stores from German food retailer Metro AG in 2014.

Tesco Kipa’s parent Tesco Plc is cutting back in Turkey. The British retailer has 173 stores there but made a net loss of 574 million lira ($191 million) in the 2014-2015 financial year.