Turkey’s Yayla Agro eyes strategic partnerships after IPO

ISTANBUL, May 9 (Reuters) – Turkey’s leading agribusiness firm Yayla Agro Gida is expecting to raise 887.5 million lira ($59.25 million) in an IPO this week, and it will be followed by a new investment in Turkey and a buy-out in the United States, its chairman said.

The rice and pulses producer is also eyeing strategic partnerships globally, chairman Hasan Gumus told Reuters.

Yayla Agro is holding an initial public offering for 15% of the company’s shares with book building on May 11-13.

The company’s paid in capital will rise to 472.6 million lira from 430 million and 71 million lira nominal valued shares will be offered to the public at a price of 12.5 lira per share.

According to Borsa Istanbul data, the IPO will be one of the biggest in Turkey so far this year.

Last year, a record 52 companies launched offerings with a total value of 21.6 billion lira, or some $2.4 billion in dollar terms at the time of the IPOs.

“With the money we’ll raise from the IPO we will finance our new investment in (the central Turkish province of) Nigde and keep the rest for our working capital needs. But our foremost aim with the IPO is to make the company get ready for strategic partnerships,” Gumus said.

“We want to become a global brand and we are planning strategic partnerships. The IPO will be a big step for this vision,” he added.

After Nigde, the company will make investments, firstly in the United States, Gumus said. “It can be also a greenfield investment but a buy-out seems more feasible for our company.”

The new facility in Nigde, with an investment amount of 450 million lira, will be operational by the first quarter of 2023, he said.

Yayla Agro currently has production facilities in Ankara and Mersin with an overall capacity of some 1 million tonnes of rice and pulses and 35 million units of packaged meals per year.

Yayla Agro’s total sales were 4.5 billion lira in 2021, with 65% of sales from international markets.

($1 = 14.9793 liras)

Writing by Ceyda Caglayan
Editing by Daren Butler, Kirsten Donovan

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