Turkish Retailer n11.com Hire Citi, BofA for Stake Sale
Turkish Retailer n11.com Hire Citi, BofA for Stake Sale
(Bloomberg) -- Dogus Holding AS and an affiliate of South Korea’s SK Group hired Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. to weigh options for their Turkish online retailer, including a possible initial public offering.
The joint owners of Istanbul-based n11.com are also considering whether to sell a minority stake in the company this year ahead of the IPO, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The share sale may happen in 2021 in Istanbul or overseas, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.
N11.com, 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. The company’s gross merchandise volume -- the dollar value of goods sold over a certain time frame -- is forecast to reach $1 billion this year, one of the people said.
Representatives for SK Holdings, SK Planet, Citigroup and Bank of America declined to comment. Representatives for Dogus Holding and n11.com didn’t respond to questions seeking comment.
N11.com’s plans come after trade volumes in Turkey’s e-commerce industry rose 40% last year to 31 billion liras ($5.1 billion), or 5.3% of total retail sales, excluding spending on travel, according to Turkey’s e-commerce association.
The company has been operating in Turkey since 2013, where it faces competition from global giants such as Amazon.com Inc., EBay Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., as well as local firms such as hepsiburada.com.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net;Asli Kandemir in Istanbul at akandemir@bloomberg.net;Kerim Karakaya in Istanbul at kkarakaya2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels
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