According to KPMG Turkey’s “Merger and Acquisition Trends” report, although the volume of merger and acquisition transactions in Turkey decreased in the 11 months of 2023, a record was broken in the number of transactions. The number of transactions, which was 205 in 2022, reached 486 this year. The announced transaction volume remained below last year with USD 2.7 billion. Together with the transactions whose value was not disclosed, the estimated total volume was announced as USD 7.3 billion. While there were no “mega transactions” exceeding the billion dollar level this year, the favorite sectors were fuel and energy, and the favorite foreign investors were the US and the UK.
KPMG Turkey Mergers and Acquisition Advisory Head & Partner Ozge Ilhan states that M&A hit a record in Turkey in terms of transactions in the first 11 months of the year.
Stating that transactions worldwide decreased from 3.2 trillion dollars to 2.4 trillion dollars in the 11th month of the year compared to the same period of 2022, İlhan said, “There was a decrease due to high inflation, and while approximately 53 thousand transactions were realized in the first 11 months of last year, 51 thousand transactions were realized this year. We see a slight decrease in the number of transactions. In Turkey, while there were 205 transactions in the same period last year, this year there were 486 transactions. So it was really a record year in terms of the number of transactions.”
Expectations for 2024 are positive
KPMG Turkey Mergers and Acquisition Advisory Head & Partner Ozge Ilhan said the following about the expectations for 2024: “2023 went down in history as the year of struggle against high inflation all over the world. While many central banks have made access to finance more difficult with their monetary tightening policies, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and escalating tensions in the Middle East have significantly reduced investors’ risk appetite. Nevertheless, strategic investors continued to make significant acquisitions in Turkey this year, particularly in the energy, industrial manufacturing and automotive sectors. Venture capital funds, on the other hand, made investments at record levels in terms of the number of transactions but low in volume, demonstrating the continued confidence in Turkey’s venture ecosystem. Predictable monetary and exchange rate policies are expected to be an important positive indicator for investors this year.”
İlhan said that the biggest transaction this year was Tofaş’s acquisition of Stellantis Otomotiv’s shares, but the transaction value of this acquisition was less than 1 billion dollars. İlhan said that two sectors stood out in the top 10 transactions, namely “industrial production and automotive” and “energy”.
According to the report of KPMG Turkey Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory, other major transactions in the industrial manufacturing and automotive sectors include UK-based Volex’s acquisition of all of Murat Kablo’s shares for USD 195.8 million, while US-based Univar Solutions’ payment of USD 143.6 million for all of Kale Kimya’s shares demonstrated the continued strategic investor appetite for Turkey.
While significant mergers and acquisitions took place in the energy sector this year, Tatarstan-based PJSC Tatneft acquired 100 percent of the shares of Aytemiz, owned by Dogan Holding, for USD 336 million. Another important transaction was the share purchase by Petrol Ofisi, a subsidiary of Vitol Group, to acquire BP’s fuel operations in Turkey.
In addition to these two transactions, Alpet sold all of its shares to Zeren Group, which operates in the energy sector in Turkey, for an undisclosed amount.
In the transaction realized in September, İşbank made an important acquisition in the field of renewable energy by purchasing 50 percent of the shares of Greeneco Enerji Elektrik Üretim with a transaction value of USD 130.9 million.
Borusan Holding acquired 23 percent of Borusan Mannessman’s shares with a transaction value of USD 57.6 million. With this transaction, German Salzgitter Mannesmann exited the partnership.
Another important acquisition in 2023 was the acquisition of MNG Kargo by Deutsche Post (DHL).
Alisan Logistics signed another important transaction in the transportation sector by selling 75 percent of its shares to Singapore-based PSA International.