Yıldız Holding buys stake in power plant

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Yıldız Holding Chairman Murat Ülker personally owns 37 percnet stake in Gözde Girişim.

One of the leading holdings in Turkey, Yıldız Holding, which is mainly active in the food business, has entered into the rapidly growing energy sector after purchasing a 51 percent stake in a natural gas-burning power plant in the Aegean province of Denizli.

Yıldız subsidiary Gözde Girişim, said in a filing to the Istanbul stock exchange that it had bought the stake for the 403 MW Alartes Enerji facility from Istanbul-based Sekoya Enerji.

The sale still requires approval by the energy regulator EPDK and the Competition Board.

Yıldız has 21.55 percent stake in Gözde, but the holding’s chairman Murat Ülker personally holds an additional 37.04 percent while the rest is mainly shared by members of the Ülker family. Nazım Ekren, a former vice prime minister and a cabinet member also serves on the company’s board.

The company is mainly active in finance, IT, energy, technology retail and real estate businesses.

Alartes Enerji Vice President Ünal Kabaca said his company offered the stake trade to Gözde.

“This will be a $350 million power plant investment. Its annual capacity will be 3 billion kWh but including the transaction period this figure will stand at around 2 billion kWh.”