Turkey’s food giant to sell 21 pct of key biscuit company to own UK-based company

ISTANBUL

Yıldız Holding has decided to sell 71.8 million shares of Ülker Bisküvi, Turkey’s largest cookie and biscuit company, to its wholly owned unit Pladis as part of a strategy. 

“Yıldız Holding will be the indirect owner of the Ülker Bisküvi shares through Pladis,” said the company in a written statement on Dec. 23. 

The sale will represent 21 percent of the company.

There will be no change in the shareholding power of Yıldız Holding in Ülker Biskuvi, read the statement. 
Yıldız Holding has a 49.9 percent stake in Ülker. 


Following the announcement, Ülker shares lost around 5 percent of their value on the stock exchange due to concerns among some investors that Yıldız Holding might carry its assets abroad, as reported by Reuters, while some others have seen the company’s move as a positive move toward eventually launching an IPO in London. 

Yıldız Holding Chair Murat Ülker said the latest announcement represented a big move, adding that Turkey’s Yıldız Holding had embraced Pladis, a global company, in a tweeted comment. 

“There is no reason for [misinterpretations]. Pladis is owned by Yıldız Holding and is a Turkish company, which is owned by our family and will remain like this,” he said Dec. 23, adding that the goal was to carry the country to the global arena.

A media report claimed in November that Yıldız’s units were being targeted in a government operation against U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of staging the July 15 coup attempt.

The company has strongly refuted such claims. 

Turkey’s leading biscuits and confectionary group, Yıldız Holding reorganized its global brands, De Met’s, Godiva, United Biscuits and Ülker, under the Pladis umbrella, forming a new global giant with annual revenue of $5.2 billion and 26,000 employees this year. 

Yıldız Holding became the world’s third largest cookie company after its acquisition of Britain-based United Biscuits in 2014.