Sabanci Holding, Turkey’s second largest conglomerate by sales, has mandated its CEO Cenk Alper and Cement Group head Tamer Saka to sell its entire 57.9% stake in woollen textiles producer Yunsa, the conglomerate said on August 26 in a stock exchange filing.

Yunsa makes up 4.6% of Sabanci’s net asset value. Yunsa shares were trading with an EV/Ebitda of 4.7, Is Invest said in its daily bulletin.

Sabanci shares (SAHOL) were down 2.04% d/d to TRY8.65 and up 24.85% y/y as of 13:00 Istanbul time, while Yunsa shares (YUNSA) jumped 19.8% d/d to TRY4.84, meaning they were down 21% y/y.

The benchmark index of the Borsa Istanbul, the BIST-100, was down 0.75% to 96,417, but up 11.06% y/y.

Lira at 5.80
The Turkish lira (TRY) was trading around 5.80 at around 17:50 Istanbul time after hitting 6.40 for a few minutes on the Asia market opening last night.

Turkish public lenders managed to take control of the local currency following the ‘flash crash’, while the Erdogan administration was working to convince Turks that there was nothing to make a fuss about. Turks fear a repeat of last summer’s lira crisis when the currency sank into the 7.20s.

Earlier this month, Sabanci sold 41% of construction equipment leasing services company Temsa Is Makinalari (TIM) to another shareholder, Japan’s Marubeni, for an undisclosed sum. By completing the transaction, the buyer increased its stake in TIM to 90% while Sabanci retained a 10% stake.

In May, the conglomerate sold its buses and light trucks maker Temsa to Swiss firm True Value Capital Partners. The sale was made based on a value of TRY375mn after adjusting for debt and cash holdings, and including the 49% stake owned by Sabanci and the other 51% owned by Sabanci family.

Sabanci Holding, founded in 1967, is active in banking and financial services (Akbank, Avivasa), energy (Enerjisa), cement, retail (Teknosa, Carrefoursa) and industry sectors.

Sabanci’s industry group consists of tyre maker Brisa, textile makers Kordsa and Yunsa and cement makers Akcansa and Cimsa.

Sabanci Holding has controlling interests in 11 companies that are also listed on the Istanbul stock exchange.

Sabanci Group companies operate in 16 countries and market their products in regions across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, North and South America.

Sabanci Holding’s multinational business partners include Ageas, Aviva, Bridgestone, Carrefour, E.ON, Heidelberg Cement, Marubeni and Philip Morris.

The Sabanci family has a 53.9% stake in Sabanci Holding and other Sabanci companies have another 3.3% while the remaining 42.8% is on free-float.

Foreigners’ share of the free-float stood at 73.76% as of August 23, down from 73.94% at end-July.

Akbank disappoints
Sabanci’s net income declined by 23% y/y to TRY889mn in Q2. Energy and insurance operations made the largest contributions to the Q2 profit, but the quarterly performance of the group’s Akbank was disappointing.

In H1, revenues of the conglomerate rose 24% y/y to TRY30.4bn, but net income dropped 12% y/y to TRY1.95bn.

Assets of Sabanci Holding stood at TRY394bn as of end-June, up from TRY372bn a year ago.

In Q1, Sabanci’s profit came in flat at TRY1.06bn.