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Materials Acquisition LLC, owned by Axiom Materials Holding LLC, for a total consideration of $178.3mn, including cash and working capital adjustments worth $3.49mn, in cash, Kordsa Teknik said on July 24 in a bourse filing. In February, Kordsa Teknik said that Kordsa Inc. had decided to acquire a 95.83% stake in Axiom Materials Acquisition for a total consideration of $174.8mn, excluding closing adjustments. Kordsa Teknik Tekstil is owned by Sabanci Holding, one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates. Kordsa is a leading manufacturer of industrial nylon and polyester yarn, tyre cord fabric and single-end cord. Prior to the deal, it had already acquired three US companies, namely Fabric Development, Textile Products and Advanced Honeycomb Technologies. The company operates in 5 countries— Turkey, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and the US—with its 11 production facilities. Axiom Materials manufactures a wide range of composite materials and engineered products, including ceramic prepregs, epoxy unidirectional carbon prepregs, tooling prepregs, and film adhesives.
Vestel, one of Turkey’s largest makers of home appliances, reported on August 1 that its net income increased by 76% on an annual basis to TRY234mn in the second quarter of 2019. Revenues rose from TRY1.37bn a year to TRY1.82bn in Q2 while financing costs increased slightly from TRY101mn to TRY102mn. The company’s gross profit was TRY304mn in the second quarter, up from TRY223mn a year earlier. Vestel reported a net income of TRY317mn for the first half versus TY218mn in H1 2018. Revenues increased to TRY3.2bn from TRY2.4bn. The company said its capacity utilisation rate declined to 71% in the first half of the year from 81% in the same period of 2018. It also noted that some TRY2.6mn of its TRY3.2bn in revenues came from sales to foreign markets. Europe accounted for 61% of all sales revenues while the share of local sales was only 18% in the first half. Turkey’s white goods market shrank 9% in January-June, Vestel said in a report, released together with its financials. The outlook for the local white goods market is far from certain. Home sales, which create demand for home appliances, are declining and consumer sentiment is weak. However, two public banks, namely Ziraat and Vakif, announced on August 1 that they have cut their housing, consumer and corporate loan interest rates following the 425 bp benchmark interest rate cut adopted by the central bank last week. This may boost both home sales and demand for white goods in the remainder of the year.
Turkish steelmaker Tosyali Holding's subsidiary in Algeria made a world record with a daily production of 7,700 tonnes of direct reduced iron (DRI), according to Anadolu Agency. The world's largest DRI producing module was put into use last November in the holding's factory, named Tosyali Algerie. Fuat Tosyali, the CEO of the holding, said Tosyali Algerie is the largest steelmaker in Algeria with its 4mn tonnes of molten steel production capacity. Tosyali Algerie is expected to export 150,000 tonnes of iron/steel this year, he said, adding: "We target to raise these figures to 600,000 level in 2020 with new logistics facilities." Tosyali Holding has 25 production facilities in three continents. It employs more than 10,000 people. The steelmaker has an annual steel production capacity of 6mn tonnes.
French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is teaming up with Turkish company Birgi Mefar to produce an antibiotic drug in Turkey. The companies signed a technology transfer and joint production agreement on July 30. The total value of the investment will be €3mn. Under the deal, Sanofi will shift the production of the drug from its facility in Rome to Turkey where the annual market for the particular antibiotic product amounts to some TRY 22mn. The size of Turkey’s pharmaceuticals market grew from TRY 13.4bn in 2010 to TRY 31bn in 2018 while the number of packages of pharmaceuticals sold rose to 2.3 bn from 1.6 bn. Last year, Turkey imported some TRY 17bn worth of pharmaceuticals, while the value of locally produced products stood at TRY14.9bn.
Turkish company Bozankaya, which produces electric buses and trams, has been awarded a contract worth €33mn to deliver 16 trams to
73 TURKEY Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com