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between 2013 and 2018, while the corresponding figure for BIM was 22.2%​. Revenues of BIM stood at $6.6bn in 2018, making it the world’s 157th largest retailer. A101 ranked 241st on Deloitte’s list of the top 250 global retailers, with $4.13bn in revenues.
A101 has a total of around 9,000 outlets in Turkey’s 81 provinces. According to the company’s website, some 3.5mn people visit A101 stores each day.
Morocco has asked BIM to raise the proportion of local goods it sells in the country to at least one-half or face a shutdown​, Reuters has reported.
The Moroccans are reviewing a free trade deal they struck with Turkey in 2004. It seems that they now view the agreement as partly responsible for Morroco’s $2bn trade deficit with the Turks, according to the news service.
“BIM invests in Morocco with Turkish support and wherever they open, 60 Moroccan shops get closed”, Trade Minister Moulay Hafid Elalamy complained.
The discount chain opened 55 new stores in Morocco last year, expanding its network there to a total of 497 outlets, according to BIM’s website.
Turkey will review a list of Moroccan complaints related to the trade accord, Elalamy said.
The two countries previously announced a deadline of January 30 to reach an agreement on amending the free trade deal, but a later date has now been agreed.
If no agreement is reached, the deal will be scrapped, Elalamy said, adding that the deal had also cost Morocco 44,000 jobs in the textiles industry in 2017.
BIM’s chief financial officer Haluk Dortluoglu told Reuters that the company was only sending around 15% of the products it sells in Morocco from Turkey.
“The rest, 85% are bought from local producers,” he said.
BIM employs around 3,000 people in Morocco, almost all of them Moroccan, Dortluoglu added.
According to the company executive, ​the Morocco operations constitute around 5% of BIM’s total revenue​, which stood at around Turkish lira 30bn ($4.9bn) in the first nine months of 2019.
9.2.4​ TMT corporate news
● Turkcell
Turkey's leading mobile phone operator Turkcell ​will on March 23​ prepay $329mn covering two final principal payments on a club loan that will mature on September 16.
The prepayment will increase the average borrowing maturity of Turkcell to five years from four years, the company said in the filing, adding that Turkcell differentiates positively from its peers with its 1.0x net debt/Ebitda ratio as per the latest financial statements disclosed publicly.
On February 12, Seth Wang, a Huawei Turkey official, said that ​Turkcell has signed an agreement with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to use the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) app ecosystem​.
63​ TURKEY Country Report​ March 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com