Turkish billionaire Salt Bae owner plans $890m sell-off to cut debt

Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk is ready to sell more of his assets as part of an ongoing effort to satisfy a debt-restructuring deal struck with banks earlier this year.

Sahenk's Dogus Holding AS could dispose of investments worth as much as 800 million euros ($890 million), he said in an interview in Istanbul late on Monday. Dogus, which has interests spanning restaurants, entertainment outlets, marinas and car-distribution businesses, wants to cut its 2.3 billion euros of restructured debt to below 2 billion euros this year and to 1.5 billion euros by the end of 2020 through the sales, he said.


"We are determining the assets to be sold by making sure that we don't weaken our position in the sectors that we have operations in," Sahenk said. "We are keeping our focus on our core businesses. We have observed significant improvements in our cash flows and Ebitda figure this year and had savings of 75 million euros in a short period of time in the group."

The steps could include an initial public offering of Dogus's hospitality businesses, Sahenk said.

The shares of companies affiliated with the investment holding company were mixed on Wednesday after surging the previous day. Dogus Gayrimenkul Yatirim Ortakligi AS, a real estate developer, rose as much as 9.3% to the highest level since June 24 after gaining 6% on Tuesday. Dogus Otomotiv Servis AS, the group's unit that distributes Volkswagen AG cars in Turkey, pared Tuesday 5.4% rally to trade 1.3% lower at 10:09 a.m. in Istanbul.

Dogus has invested a total of $9 billion in restaurants, automotive, hotels, energy and finance in the past decade, with 83% of them in Turkey, Sahenk said.