Turkish food group Ulker aims to grow its revenues by expanding in the Middle East and Africa after attracting “record breaking” interest from investors through its share placement, a senior executive told just-food.
Ulker parent company Yildiz Holding put 20% of the bakery-to-confectionery manufacturer for sale through a private placement on the Borsa Istanbul, Turkey’s stock exchange.
The private placement raised US$431m and was three-times over subscribed. Yildiz said 42% of Ulker, which it describes as its “flagship company” will now be floated.
“The private placement of 20% of Ulker’s shares sold by its parent Yildiz Holding was met with US$1.3bn demand from some top institutional names, a record-breaking volume in Turkey’s consumer equities history,” Bora Yalinay CFO of Ulker’s chocolate, biscuit and cake division told just-food.
The company intends to use funds to help grow sales from TRY2.3bn (US$1.15bn) last year to TRY4.5bn by 2016, Yalinay added.
“Priority expansion countries are Egypt and Saudi Arabia. By saying that, our main expansion region is [the] MEA region,” he said.
