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“What you sow, you will reap.” This common saying that we Greeks and Turks have fits with Ferit Sahenk, the third richest man in Turkey (with a fortune of 2.2 billion dollars, according to “Forbes”), representative of a large business family and a close friend. and supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a man who until a few years ago with the investments he made through the family holding Dogus Holding in many countries, including Greece, was becoming a significant growing business force in the Mediterranean and the Gulf. Persian, proposing cooperation.
It is characteristic that when he started his investments in Greece seven years ago with his entry into the marinas, “Asteras” Vouliagmenis and “Hilton”, he encouraged Greek and Turkish companies in cooperation to make the Aegean one of the most popular centers for luxury travel internationally.
He has also been fond of the Greek islands for years, taking care of his mini-cruise every summer on his luxury yacht, anchoring mainly in Mykonos, where today he still has two bar-restaurants, “Nusret” and “Coya”. . At the same time, however, he was a frequent visitor to nightclubs both on the islands and in Athens, which he visited several times. His weakness is said to be Antonis Remos, whom he made sure to listen to every time he came.
The Cretan Turk Ferit Sahenk with his wife and daughter. Their moments of happiness are now over, as the currency crisis that has hit the neighboring country in recent years has caused a huge hole in the Dogus group’s finances, which is not closed despite constantly selling assets abroad.
Battle for survival
Past greatness, one might say, as today the man who came to represent Erdogan’s enhanced business profile internationally in Turkey is waging a great battle, perhaps the greatest, to ensure the survival of the family business giant. Because today Sahenk, who with the mainstream media of his group like NTV, blindly supported Erdogan, participating in the “seeding” of the “sultan” regime of the Turkish political scene, is reaping … storms. The … vision of large joint tourism companies in the Aegean goes for a walk not only because of the provocation of Turkey, but also because the legal crisis that has affected the neighboring country in recent years and is reinforced by the manipulations of Erdogan has caused a huge hole in your finances. Dogus Group, which does not close although it constantly sells assets abroad. This is due to the fact that the fall in the Turkish pound, which has already reached the equivalent of 0.10 euros, continues to inflate the large debt loads that the group has, since most are in foreign currency.
“Bell”
Consequently, once again the tax auditor who signed Dogus Holdings’ financial statements for the first half of the year raised the alarm because “current liabilities exceed current assets by 1,200 million pounds” (about 120 million euros). .. Commonly, the company faces a significant liquidity problem that to date has not been solved with the massive sale of assets abroad, but also with the restructuring of its credit.
In fact, the financial statements for the first half of 2020 show that Dogus Holding had revenues of 35 7.350 million (approximately € 737 million), operating losses of 4474.512 (€ 47,606) and financial losses of 8 3.8 billion. billions of pounds (381 million euros) and, therefore, a net loss of δ 3,140 million (315 million euros). Its short-term loan liabilities as of June 30 were 6.62 billion pounds (664 million euros) and its long-term liabilities were 27.92 billion pounds (2.8 billion euros)!
In April 2019 alone, the company had reached an agreement with creditor banks for the restructuring of debt loads of 2.3 billion euros. However, according to information from Bloomberg, today he states that he cannot comply with the regulations, asking for new ones so as not to collapse the business building that has spread in many areas: from construction and infrastructure management to entertainment centers. In fact, the long list of a portfolio with 250 companies includes construction companies, Porsche dealerships, Audi, Volkswagen, etc., as well as clothing and food retail chains. The group is also active in the fields of energy, tourism, real estate, media (with the “flagship” NTV channel), while it had expanded into a luxury restaurant chain with iconic chef Salt Bae.
This time, as an excuse for the consortium of 12 banks, according to Bloomberg, the Dogus group highlights the blow that the group’s activities have received, mainly in tourism and construction, from the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sale of assets
To meet the conditions of the banks last year the group had sold 625 million euro stakes in hotels and restaurants. At the same time, for this year the plan was to raise another 800 million euros from new asset sales.
But even that does not seem to be enough to inspire confidence even in the rating agencies that characterize Dogus Holding’s bonds as “junk”, with the rating of Standard & Poor’s CCC +.
Among the important assets that the Turkish group was forced to sell were several major hotels, such as the “Capri Palace” in Italy and the “Park Hyatt” in Istanbul. At the same time, it was planned to sell the international restaurant chain D.ream, which owns the franchises of the Japanese restaurant “Zuma”, “Nusret” and others, as well as Dogus Restaurants Entertainment & Management in London.
Divestments from Greece
Among the assets in which the store entered is the majority of the shares and properties of Dogus in our country.
Just last month, the Sahenk group sold CVC Capital Partners and the other marinas in the Mediterranean and the United Arab Emirates, which were under the D-Marin umbrella, their interests. In our country, D-Marin currently participates in the marinas of Floisvos, Zea, Corfu and Lefkada, having been present since 2013, when it had reached an agreement with the Kyriakoulis group for the marinas of Kalamata, Corfu, Lefkada and Zea. in a deal that was later discussed as one of the most important Greek-Turkish weddings in national business. This is because the Turkish group Dogus, which had acquired a stake in the Floisvou marina after another deal with Lamda Development, had managed to acquire 2,775 berths, or 34% of the country’s total capacity, as typically mentioned. at that moment. It should be noted that, in addition to the initial 51%, the Turkish group had subsequently increased its share further in 2015, with the Kyriakoulis group keeping a slightly less than 10% share in the joint venture KG Med Marinas.
One of the first assets sold in our country in April 2019 was the 50% stake in the joint venture that Dogus had with TEMES, through which it controlled “Hilton”, in TEMES and its associates. It was preceded by the sale in 2018 of the six-storey building at the corner of Ypsilantou and Gennadiou streets, in Kolonaki, instead of 4.75 million euros in BriQ Properties AEEAP by Theodoros Fessas, a building that Sahenk had bought in 2015 to create office space. . The building now houses the hotel “The Modernist”.
Among the assets of the Dogus group in Greece is 33% of “Astera” Vouliagmeni, a stake for which rumors of an imminent sale are now being spread again.
Scenarios for “Asteras”
The only assets that Dogus has left in our country are the restaurants “Nusret Mykonos” and “Coya Mykonos”, as well as the 33% it owns in “Asteras” Vouliagmeni, a stake by which rumors about an upcoming sale, although Sahenk circles recently claimed that “Asteras” is one of the assets he wants to stay on. It is recalled that the Astir Palace holding is owned by an investment fund of AGC Equity Partners, whose shareholding structure includes, in addition to the Turkish group Dogus, state investment funds from Abu Dhabi and Kuwait and other Arab funds.
