With a new economy-focused global growth strategy, continuing its investments in Türkiye and abroad, and successfully progressing towards its medium-term goals, Sabancı Holding announced its financial results adjusted for inflation for the year 2023. Throughout 2023, Sabancı Holding increased its combined sales by 6% to a level of 811.1 billion TL, while the Holding's consolidated net profit was realized as 15.4 billion TL.
In the statement, Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper said, "Financial uncertainties on a global scale, a high inflation environment, and geopolitical tensions have continued to limit visibility in the world economy throughout the past year. On the other hand, on February 6th, we experienced an earthquake disaster, quite unparalleled in the history of Türkiye and even the world. During this process, while being there for the people of the region, we also continued to be on the field with all our teams, especially our energy business line, in order to provide uninterrupted services in public services. In light of these developments, we once again saw that difficulties and uncertainties have now become an indispensable part of our business."
"OUR STRONG BALANCE SHEET INCREASES OUR APPETITE FOR NEW MAJOR INVESTMENTS"
Cenk Alper, highlighting that in such a challenging process, Sabancı Group acted with an approach that prioritized balance sheet quality and turned agility, adaptation and flexibility into a corporate culture, stated, “With inflation accounting, our bank, which naturally holds a high net monetary asset position in its balance sheets, and our financial services companies have shown a downward financial performance in terms of net profit due to high monetary losses incurred. However, with our strong cash flow and solid non-banking equity profitability, we have raised our Holding's cash position to the highest level in history on an annual basis, while also maintaining our combined non-banking and insurance net debt/EBITDA ratio at 0.8x. This situation increases our appetite for new major investments.”
"ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES ARE OUR FOCUS AREAS"
Cenk Alper, reminding that they established Digital Group Presidency within the Holding in 2023, said, “In this business line, while strengthening our cyber security and digital marketing competencies, we will also focus on new growth platforms such as artificial intelligence and cloud technologies. Moreover, we will continue to take steps towards positioning SabancıDx as a service provider, fully transforming Teknosa, which continues to grow across multiple channels, into a digital identity, and further enhancing the digital capabilities of Carrefoursa, which has achieved significant success with a light-asset-focused growth strategy”
Cenk Alper, stating that they see digital as the driving force of scalability, continued: "The fact that over 60% of Akbank's total new customer acquisitions last year, with a net active customer growth of 2.3 million, were obtained through digital channels, is the clearest indicator that digital is not just a field limited to efficiency and cost improvements; it is a business culture that opens new horizons for all companies for rapid and quality growth. On the other hand, one of the prerequisites for thinking digitally is to embrace the right ideas. Accordingly, since 2020, the number of funds and startups we have invested in has exceeded 30. Additionally, in 2023, within Sabancı Holding, we launched the Sabancı Technology Center in Germany, which will host Çimsa and Kordsa."
Adding to his words that they have taken significant steps in sustainability over the past year, Cenk Alper said: "In our energy business line, with the renewable energy investments we have commissioned, we have reached a total installed capacity of 3,792 MW with Enerjisa Production. Last year, we produced approximately 600 kilograms of hydrogen in the Hydrogen Valley initiated by Enerjisa Üretim in Bandırma. Aiming to transfer our experience in renewable energy to international markets, we are launching our second solar energy investment in Texas, USA. With the commissioning of the signed 232 MW solar power plant, our solar energy investments in the USA will reach 500 MW. After Europe's first electric intercity bus, Temsa signed an R&D agreement with the Portuguese company CaetanoBus to launch Türkiye's first hydrogen-fueled intercity bus. We increased the capacity of our electric vehicle charging stations, covering 43% of Türkiye, by about 3 times to 5,379 kW in 2023. On the other hand, Kordsa's establishment of its polymer blends (compounding) business unit and Çimsa's calcium aluminate cement (CAC) investments were significant indicators of our commitment to growth in sustainable materials."
"NEXT YEAR, WE WILL CELEBRATE OUR 100TH ANNIVERSARY"
Cenk Alper, expressing pride and happiness in implementing all these investments that greatly support the economic development of the country in the 100th year of the Republic of Türkiye, continued: "The only way to honor the legacy left to us by the great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is through hard work. With this understanding, we carried out the third Sabancı Republic Day Campaign, which we started in 2021 and quickly became Türkiye's largest social responsibility movement, led by our Sabancı Volunteers. We undertook 8 main projects focused on education and development and signed over 1,000 activities. As part of our Sabancı Republic Day Campaign activities, in Hatay, one of the provinces most affected by the earthquake disaster, we launched Sabancı Hatay Incubation Center in collaboration with the Habitat Association, Brisa, Kordsa, Temsa, and Teknosa. As a Group that will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, we are determined to continue honoring the Republic and Atatürk's values with new investments, projects, and practices we will undertake in the coming period."
"STRENGTHENING ITS FOCUS ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MOBILITY WITH THE NEW STRUCTURE"
In line with its strategic priorities, focusing on expanding its core businesses and prioritizing new growth platforms, Sabancı Holding has implemented an organizational change to strengthen its focus towards its future goals. In this context, the strategic business units of "Building Materials" and "Industry" have been restructured as "Material Technologies" and "Mobility Solutions." With this change, Sabancı Group companies such as Akçansa, Çimsa, and Kordsa will operate under the Material Technologies group; Brisa, Temsa Skoda Ulaşım Araçları, and Temsa Motorlu Araçlar will continue their activities under the Mobility Solutions group.
As part of the changes that will take effect from April 19, 2024, Burak Orhun, who currently serves as the President of the Building Materials Group at Sabancı Holding, has been appointed as the President of the Material Technologies Group at Sabancı Holding. Cevdet Alemdar, the current President of the Industry Group at Sabancı Holding, will serve as the President of the Mobility Solutions Group at Sabancı Holding. The new organizational structure will support the Sabancı Group's focus on business models based on the new economy, while also making significant contributions to the vision of becoming Sabancı of the World.