Turkish company says may complete Migros stake purchase by end January

ISTANBUL-Reuters

Turkish conglomerate Anadolu Group may complete the purchase of a 40.25 percent stake in supermarket chain Migros by the end of January, Chairman Tuncay Özilhan said Nov. 27.

Anadolu said in October it had offered private equity group BC Partners 26 lira ($11.44) per share for the stake, a premium of around 36 percent to the then market value, valuing the stake at around 1.8 billion lira ($810 million).

“The due diligence process continues ... The transaction may be completed by the end of January if there are no problems,” Özilhan told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of the TÜSİAD business association in Istanbul.

Anadolu Group has interests from finance and automotive to beverages. It markets beer and soft drinks in 14 countries including Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, but so far has had no assets in food retail.

London-based BC Partners, which owns about 80 percent of Migros, has been in informal talks to sell the chain for years but a slowdown in the Turkish economy and a fall in value of the lira against the dollar made a deal difficult.

BC Partners bought Migros in 2008 for $3.25 billion with the help of Turkish buyout firm Turkven and Italy’s DeA Capital, beating a bid by larger rival Blackstone and Croatian food group Agrokor.