With more than 4,700 stores across the country and a year-end turnover of TL 6 billion ($1.7 billion), one of Turkey's largest local supermarket chains Şok is planning initial public offering (IPO) next year. A Reuters report claimed, the supermarket chain has already initiated the preparations for an IPO, which might go ahead in 2018 if the markets are in a good condition.
Şok is currently half owned by Netherlands-based Turkish Retail Investment consortium and is 39 percent owned by Gözde Girişim, a subsidiary of the Turkish food giant Yıldız Holding. Templeton Strategic Emerging Markets Fund, a private equity company based in the Cayman Islands, owns a 10 percent stake in the company.
In 2011, a consortium led by Gözde Girişim acquired Şok for $342 million. According to its annual report, the supermarket chain had 4,730 stores across Turkey and employed more than 21,000 people at the end of June.
Analysts have claimed that Şok recorded an estimated turnover of TL 6 billion last year and could reach TL 8 billion this year. Şok officials, however, declined to comment on its financial data but acknowledged the plans for an IPO without mentioning a specific date.
Earlier, in one of the largest IPOs in recent years, Turkish clothing giant Mavi Giyim raised TL 1.17 billion after its 55 percent stock started trading on the stock exchange in June.
