YILDIZ Holding, the Turkish conglomerate behind Godiva chocolates and McVitie’s biscuits, will sell its marinas to focus on its core food and retail businesses.
“At Yildiz Holding, we are prioritising food and retail as part of our ongoing strategy to grow organically and strengthen our global partnerships. As part of this focus, we have decided to exit our marina and tourism investments,” the company said on Tuesday (Dec 24).
Yildiz did not disclose the estimated value of the assets it’s planning to sell.
Marinturk, a unit of Yildiz, operates marinas in Istanbul and the Mediterranean resort town of Gocek, popular with both domestic and international yacht owners. The facilities have a combined capacity of 972 yachts and 280 land parking spaces, according to the company’s website.
The firm’s plans to exit marina and tourism investments follows an earlier decision to focus on what it considers to be high-growth sectors. Yildiz reorganised its food and retail business last year to boost efficiency and global competitiveness.
In the past decade, Yildiz expanded aggressively, acquiring billions of US dollars worth of assets, including United Biscuits Holdings and DeMet’s Candy in the UK and US. That buying spree led it to renegotiate US$7 billion of debt with creditors six years ago in what was then Turkey’s largest corporate debt restructuring ever. BLOOMBERG
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