Owners of Turkish Online Retailer n11 Consider IPO

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s SK Holdings Co. and Dogus Holding AS are weighing an initial public offering for their Turkish online retailer, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The joint owners of Istanbul-based n11.com have approached investment banks about the potential share sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. A decision hasn’t yet been made on timing, they said.

There are no plans in the “near future” for an IPO, n11.com said. The e-commerce platform, formally known as Dogus Planet Elektronik Ticaret ve Bilisim Hizmetleri AS, has access to more than 115,000 stores and more than 14 million products, according to its website. SK Planet doesn’t have plans for an IPO of the unit, a spokesman said.

The talks around an IPO come after trade volumes in Turkey’s e-commerce industry rose 40% in 2019 to 31 billion liras ($5.1 billion), or 5.3% of total retail sales excluding spending on travel and holidays, according to Turkey’s e-commerce association.

The company has been operating since 2013 in Turkey, where it faces competition from international giants such as Amazon.com Inc., eBay Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., as well as local companies like hepsiburada.com, in which a Franklin Resources Inc. fund has a stake.

--With assistance from Sohee Kim.

To contact the reporters on this story: Asli Kandemir in Istanbul at akandemir@bloomberg.net;Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, ;Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, ;Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels

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