Turkish cement companies have expressed interest in the merger opportunities arising from the planned merger of France's Lafarge Group and Switzerland's Holcim Group to create the world's largest cement company.
Turkey is the fifth largest cement manufacturer in the world, and Turkish competition law stipulates that each Turkish enterprise can not exceed 25% of the domestic market share, so Turkish cement enterprises have set their sights on foreign markets.
Turkey's Oyak said it had begun discussions with international investment banks about a possible merger and had committed $3 billion to seize the opportunity presented by LafargeHolcim's big acquisition.
Oyak owns five cement companies, namely Adana Cimento, Mardin Cimento, Bolu Cimento, Unye Cimento and Aslan Cimento.
Gultekin Aksuyek, chief executive of Limak Holding's cement group, said that in order to become the largest cement manufacturer in Turkey, Limak had begun to budget for the opportunities brought about by the merger.
"Today we are the third largest cement manufacturer in the Turkish cement industry, with a market share of 13%," Gultekin said. We plan to become the largest cement company in Turkey by the end of 2016 by purchasing at least three cement production plants.
Limak Holding Group, founded in 1976, is a large enterprise in Turkey, whose main business is construction, energy, cement and tourism.
Cement giant Sabanci Holding is planning to grow through mergers and acquisitions, and Sabanci said it plans to spend between $467 million and $700 million on mergers and acquisitions.
Sabanci Holdings, the parent company of Sabanci Group, is Turkey's leading industrial and financial giant. Sabanci Group companies are market leaders in various business sectors, including financial services, energy, cement, retail and industry. Two cement companies, Akcansa and Cimsa, are controlled by Sabanci.
In response, Ece Mandaci, an analyst at Burgan Investments, said he expected LafargeHolcim's assets to be unsaleable by 2015. In addition, two-thirds of the assets will be sold in Europe.
Mandaci also said Turkish cement companies were most likely to be interested in German assets.
"Akcansa has a partnership with the Heidelberg Group and therefore, under competition rules, Akcansa will not be able to acquire cement assets in Germany; however, Cimsa and other companies may be interested in German assets," Mandaci said.
Akcansa is a joint venture between Sabanci Holdings and HeidelbergCement Group.
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