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Turkey’s Yildiz Attracts Bids for Brick Maker at $500 Million Value

Turkey’s Yildiz Attracts Bids for Brick Maker at $500 Million Value

(Bloomberg) -- The company that just completed Turkey’s biggest loan restructuring is in talks with several potential international buyers over its mining and brick business for an enterprise value of about $500 million, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Yildiz Holding AS and its private equity unit, Gozde Girisim Sermayesi Yatirim Ortakligi AS, are in negotiations with investors from Russia, India, Europe and China on the sale of Kumas Manyezit Sanayi AS, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. One of the European bidders is from France, two of the people said. Vienna-based RHI Magnesita NV is among those looking at the company, one person said.

Istanbul-based Yildiz Holding, Turkey’s biggest food producer, in May completed months of discussions with almost a dozen banks to restructure two loans totaling $6.5 billion. It pledged to sell assets to prop up its books as part of the agreement. Yildiz and Gozde sold shares in discount grocer Sok Marketler AS last month in an initial public offering that earned the sellers nearly $500 million.

Shares of Yildiz Holding’s listed units rose. Shares in Gozde Girisim, which owns 51 percent of Kumas, rose as much as 10.4 percent to 2.97 liras in Istanbul, the most since Nov. 3. Biscuit maker Ulker Biskuvi Sanayi AS gained as much as 1.9 percent, while frozen food unit Kerevitas gained 17.9 percent.

Yildiz Holding, which owns the producers of global brands Godiva chocolates and McVities snacks, declined to comment. RHI Magnesita said in a statement that “there is currently no agreement in relation to Kumas Manyezit Sanayi AS and there can be no certainty that any transaction will occur at all.”

Kumas is the largest supplier and manufacturer of varieties of magnesite and dolomite as well refractory bricks to several industries including iron and steel, cement, glass and lime in Turkey and eastern Europe, according to Gozde’s website. Net sales rose 9 percent to $72 million in the first half of 2017, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization climbed 26 percent to $12.3 million, according to its website.

Yildiz Holding owns the remaining 49 percent in Kumas.

--With assistance from Boris Groendahl.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels, Ross Larsen

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