Haci Omer Sabanci : Consolidated Sales Of Sabancı Holding Amounted To 9.1 Billion TL In The First Three Months Of 2017

- SABANCI HOLDING CEO, MEHMET GÖÇMEN: 'WE WILL CONTINUE TO WORK FOR OUR COUNTRY AND CREATE MORE VALUE IN THE FUTURE THE SAME WAY WE HAVE DONE IN THE PAST'

Consolidated sales of Sabancı Holding increased by9.5% and amounted to 9.1 Billion TL in the first three months of 2017.Consolidated net profit of Sabancı Holding in the first three months was669 Million TL.Total assets of Sabancı Holdingwere 317 Billion 385 Million TL as of 31 March 2017,total consolidated corporate owner's equity was23 Billion, 634 Million TL.

In his public address, Sabancı Holding CEO, Mehmet Göçmen stated: 'We were highly successful in the first three months of 2017 especially in Retail, Insurance and Energy business sectors. As we have done so in the past, our goal from now onwards as Sabancı Holding is to create more value for our stakeholders in every sector we operate. We continue our Holding investments as planned. We will continue to work for our country and create more value in the future the same way we have done in the past.'

'AKBANK IS THE MOST VALUABLE BANKING BRAND IN TURKEY FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS'

Regarding the banking activities of the Holding, Mr. Göçmen indicated that since its inception, Akbank has continued to contribute to the Turkish economy through its activities. Stating that with a total of increase of 5% exceeding 230 billion TL, Akbank has supported the economy through its credits, of which close to 186 billion TL were cash credits, Mr. Göçmen continued: 'With Akbank our total deposits reached 179 billion TL in this period. Our non-performing loan ratio was at 2.4%, one of the lowest rates in the sector. Akbank was selected for the 6th consecutive time 'The most valuable Banking Brand of Turkey' as well as winning the 'Best Bank in Central and Eastern Europe' title granted by the world-renowned finance magazine, Euromoney. It is pleasing to see that such activities have results in parallel with the trust that our customers and all our other stakeholders have in our bank.'

ENERJİSA CONTINUES TO CREATE VALUE FOCUSED ON EFFICIENCY, COMPETITIVENESS AND OPERATIONAL PERFECTION

After stating that they are continuing their efficiency and operational perfection focused activities at the leading company of the growing and developing Turkish electricity market, Enerjisa, which provides electricity for one out of every four people in Turkey, Mehmet Göçmen continued: 'Despite the difficulties faced in all business areas of production, distribution and sales due to market conditions as well as various regulations in the first quarter of this year, our sales at Enerjisa increased by 6% and our operating profit excluding one-time inflows and outflows increased by 7%. We continued to remarkably improve on our service quality in electricity distribution and sales. Although the negative effects of trying market conditions manifested themselves in a continuing oversupply of production, seasonal natural gas interruptions and decreasing rain levels compared to previous year, we managed to create value through our balanced production portfolio, effective optimization of our production units and our commercial activities growing in parallel to the free market. We introduced our Doğançay hydroelectric plant which started operating with a capacity of 62 MW power and thus we completed all our production investments that were in construction and we increased our contribution to the utilization of renewable energy sources of our country. We carry on at full speed with our distribution investments which we provide in a wide geographical area. We are also going through a strategic transformation at Enerjisa. With our partner E.ON, we decided to restructure Enerjisa and its subsidiaries and manage our electricity distribution & retail sales business and energy production & trading business separately as two companies, both of which have different dynamics. Thus we aim to create two strong companies which can properly focus on market and customer needs.'

'WE NEED TO WORK MORE TO INCREASE ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND FOR A PREDICTABLE MARKET'

Highlighting the importance of the fact that energy safety, localization and predictable markets were identified as the three main components of the National Energy Policy, which sets strategies for the Turkish energy sector to grow and develop, Mr. Göçmen expressed his belief that the introduction of energy resources of our country in increasing amounts into the economy will result in valuable contributions in the areas of energy safety, employment, and current account balance. Underlining the remarkable momentum gained from the recent sun, wind and lignite projects, Mr. Göçmen stated that Turkey also needed to take simultaneous steps towards reducing its energy intensity: 'I believe that we also need to focus on consumption as well as supply of energy or production side and growth. We must continue taking steps towards free, competition-based and sufficiently deep energy markets with enhanced predictability.'

'WE ACHIEVED SUCCESS IN OUR INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES'

Talking about the activities of Sabancı Holding Industry Group, Mr. Göçmen stated: 'Our Industry Group went from strength to strength in the first three months. At Kordsa, where we set out with the vision 'We Enhance Life', investments, market and customer-focused activities and operational efficiency approach reflected positively in the financial indicators. We increased our operating profit by 50% compared to the same period of previous year and our net profit reached 74.3 million TL with a 31% increase.

'We are now exporting buses to many countries in the world through our Temsa company. We continue to make a difference with the buses which we developed using the latest technologies.'

'We exceeded the market performance with our Brisa company and Lassa brand in the European automotive tire market which grew by 4% especially in the UK, France, Serbia, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

'OUR CEMENT COMPANIES CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN THEIR LEADERSHIP POSITION IN THE SECTOR'

Touching on the activities of the cement companies, Mr. Göçmen added: 'With our cement companies Akçansa and Çimsa, we maintained our leadership position in the sector in this period. We develop, produce and market the products which our customers demand from us with the market and customer-focused marketing approach adopted by our Akçansa company. We are positioned as a business partner in the most important projects in Turkey with this approach. With Low Alkali Cement developed specifically for the USA, we opened the gates for this market. Today we are the most important cement brand preferred by the USA.

'ÇİMSA IS LEADING THE WAY IN SUSTAINABILITY IN ITS SECTOR'

Investments made through our Çimsa company in 2016 were 196 million USD, while our exports were 110 million USD. We produce 5.6 million tons of cement and export them to 65 different countries through Çimsa every year. This year Çimsa Afyon Plant started operating after investments of 165 million USD.

Achieving success in sustainability and environmental issues, Çimsa, which started its journey in 2010 by publishing the first Sustainability Report in the sector, sets an example for both its country and its sector by publishing the first Integrated Annual Report in 2017. CDP Turkey received a score of A- thanks to the company's success in the reporting period of 2016 and was awarded the Turkey's Climate Leaders Awards, thus achieving a first in the cement sector. 33% of fuel consumption at Çimsa, Eskişehir Plant, 2nd Facility is now done through alternative fuels.

'WE FOCUS ON THE PROFITABILITY OF GROWTH AT CARREFOURSA'

Mr. Göçmen: 'As Sabancı Group we worked hard alongside our leader brand in food & retail, CarrefourSA during 2016 for the novelties which we would start introducing from the beginning of 2017. We set out on this journey by putting 'Customers First' and we focused on operational perfection in order to reach consumers with a wide variety, quality and right-priced products; by improving all processes on multi-formats from our warehouses to shelves, from purchasing of the products to their display, and by rearranging our hyper, super, mini and gourmet markets, we move forward by focusing on balanced growth and profitability.'

'Our Teknosa brand maintains its sector leader position. We entered 2017 in perfect form in parallel with the changing needs of our customers and we achieved the growth and profitability targets that we aimed for in the first quarter. We have a rising trend in online retailing which is usually sluggish in the first three months.'

'WE MAINTAINED OUR SECTOR LEADERSHIP AT AVİVASA WITH 12.7 BILLION TL FUND SIZE.'

Talking about the activities of their insurance companies, Mr. Göçmen indicated that the combined International Financial Reporting Standards based (IFRS based) net profit of the companies increased by 48% in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period of previous year. Göçmen: 'Our insurance companies maintained their reference positions in the first quarter of 2017 in their fields. We maintained our leadership position with our AvivaSA company in personal pension fund size. In the first quarter of 2017, the total fund size including government contributions increased by 28% to 12.7 billion TL and we saw 5% growth in the number of participants.

Our Aksigorta company produced 615 million TL insurance premiums in the first quarter of this year. In the first quarter of 2017, while the insurance sector excluding life insurances grew by 14% compared to the same period of previous year, Aksigorta showed a remarkable performance by increasing its premium production by 23%. Our IFRS based net profit was 33.3m TL. In the coming period we will continue to create a balanced portfolio with Aksigorta, and continue to invest in digital transformation and innovation in line with our customer-focused service approach.