Turkish group Yildiz Holding, owner of food company Ulker and chocolatier Godiva, may hold IPOs for some of its units, the head of the company's investment and business development department said on Thursday. Each unit of Yildiz Holding has an IPO strategy and it would not be a surprise if some of them start an IPO process in coming days, Zeki Ziya Sozen told a news conference.

A statement released before the company's annual performance assessment meeting said food activities created 8.8 billion lira ($5.7 billion) in gross revenue in 2009, 1.4 billion from overseas sales.Operating profit from food activities was 428 million lira, it said.Food investments in 2009 fell to 274 million lira from the previous year's 417 million. Apart from food business, Yildiz has personal care, real estate, information and communication technologies divisions. Consolidated turnover including them was announced  over 11 billion USD  for 2008, 2009 consolidated turnover not released yet.

Closely held Yildiz is still studying a new global partnership this year having set up a new production facility with Germany's Laurens Spethmann Holding for the tea market.Yildiz last year created a 50-50 joint venture with Denmark-based Gumlink, a chewing-gum producer. The holding will embark on a cosmetics investment, spending $100 million in 2010.

Source: Turkish newspapers, flex-news-food.com