Turkish e-commerce giant Trendyol, backed by Chinese internet behemoth Alibaba, is planning a dual-listing initial public offering (IPO) in New York or London when its income from foreign sales reaches 30%-35% in total revenue, the group's chief executive said. Trendyol, one of Turkey's best-known e-retail platforms, has received foreign investor backing and holds a leading position in the country’s fragmented e-commerce market.
"Before a public offering, we want to see revenue abroad, which is around 5% of total revenue right now, rise to 30%-35%," head of Trendyol Group Cağlayan Çetin said in remarks late Tuesday.
In a meeting with reporters, Çetin also said the company is planning its IPO in 2024-2025 but that teams are making a serious effort to move it up to next year. A private company can go public after being listed as an IPO through the sale of its stocks to the general public.
"Our ultimate aim is an IPO. We will use the dual-listing method ... One arm will be in Turkey (Istanbul stock exchange) and the other can be in London or New York," he said.
In August, Trendyol had entered into agreements to raise $1.5 billion (TL 20.24 billion) from a number of high-profile investors, valuing the company at $16.5 billion.
Trendyol is also interested in company acquisition in Turkic countries, the Middle East or Europe and looking at a range of firms with $500 million to $6 billion valuations, Çetin said.
Trendyol's founders hold 20% of its shares, including so-called golden shares, while Alibaba has 70%. Other investors include General Atlantic, Japan's SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Germany's Princeville Capital and Qatar Investment Authority.
Asked if another funding round is planned, Çetin said there is interest from existing and new investors but the company first needs to decide where to direct new investments.
He also commented that they want to be in the European market as much as possible with their investments in warehouses.
"There is a new, 500 million market for Turkish manufacturers, together with Europe and the Middle East. We currently export but only to the brands and wholesalers there."
"We plan to enable the manufacturers to connect directly with 500 million customers," he said, adding that, for example, customers in Germany can use the Trendyol app and buy their products.
"Like German and Arabic, local languages will also be integrated. We are investing in their infrastructure as well. We are also considering acquisitions of companies abroad for these operations. We will make some investments from scratch. Our investors also believe in us, with their capital ready to support us," he said.
Trendyol’s e-exports reached $150 million in 2021, while the total volume of trade consisting of the products purchased by the customers in foreign countries from the platform reached $115 million, and the total export volume reached $265 million, Çetin said.
"Our e-export growth rate in 2021 was 408%. We received 6 million orders," and set "our e-export volume target as $1 billion for 2023.
Some 66% of the e-exports Trendyol carried out in 2021 were to European countries, while 23% was to the Middle East.
"Currently, there are 4 million customers using Trendyol-branded products produced by our domestic manufacturers. We provide job opportunities to hundreds of thousands of people. We contribute directly and indirectly to the employment of 1.1 million people. We anticipate that this figure will reach 2.4 million people in 2023," Çetin added.