BC in discussions to sell Migros stake

Ellie Pullen
06 October 2014

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

BC Partners is in exclusive talks with Turkish retailer Anadolu Group for the sale of a 40.25% stake in Turkish supermarket chain Migros Ticaret.

Anadolu has made an offer of around TRY 1.8bn (€650.6m) – equivalent to TRY 26 (around €9) per share – valuing Migros at approximately €1.53bn.

BC holds a stake of around 80% in Migros. According to Anadolu's parent company, Turkish family holding company Yazıcılar Holding, Migros would be co-owned by Anadolu and BC following completion of the deal.

Yazıcılar owns a 68% stake in Anadolu holding company Anadolu Endüstri Holding, which is making the offer for Migros.

Previous investment
BC acquired Migros in February 2008, buying a 50.81% stake in a deal that valued the company at $3.25bn. Turkven Private Equity and DeA Capital took part in the transaction as minority investors.

At the time, BC planned to launch a tender offer for the remaining shares in Migros, which were listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Turkish banks Garanti Bank, Is Bank, Vakifbank and AkBank provided debt financing for the deal.

The deal was hailed as the largest ever private equity transaction to take place in Turkey at the time. In November 2008, BC and the minority investors' stakes increased to a collective 97.9% through the tender offer.

In April 2011, BC partially exited Migros through the sale of a 17.4% stake for $515m. This was followed by the sale of Migros's Sok discount division for $380m in June of the same year.

Company
Founded in 1954 and headquartered in Istanbul, Migros is an operator of supermarkets across Turkey. It operates 1,138 stores, 834 of which are Migros stores.

The company also owns the Tansaş brand, of which there are 212 stores; Macrocenter, of which there are 27; hypermarket chain 5M, of which there are 24 across 70 provinces; and its Ramstore overseas brand, which operates in Kazakhstan and Macedonia across 41 stores.

The group employs 18,850 staff and generated TRY 7.1bn (€2.5bn) in turnover, as well as an EBITDA of TRY 469m (€163.9m).

People
Ömer Özgür Tort is the CEO of Migros. BC managing partner Nikos Stathopoulos and senior partners Cédric Dubourdieu and Stefano Ferraresi manage the firm's investment in the company.