Sabancı Holding announced its financial results for the first half of 2023. According to the second quarter data, Sabancı Holding’s combined sales hit 265.8 billion Turkish lira in the first six months of the year, up by 61 percent, as the Holding reached a consolidated net profit of 19.4 billion Turkish lira.
Sabancı Holding has consistently strengthened its balance sheet structure with improved return on equity and strong cash generation, expanding the share of foreign exchange revenues in its operating profit to 30 percent. The Holding continues its investments at full speed as part of its “new economy”-focused global growth strategy.
Commencing his assessment of the subject by referencing the earthquakes that took place on February 6, Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper said: “As our country experienced a great deal of pain due to this earthquake, it is our top priority to be there for our people and help them heal their wounds. All of our Group companies continue to provide aid to the region with great determination. To that end, Sabancı Foundation fulfilled its promise of ‘Three Schools in Three Months in Hatay’ as part of its education campaign, while our Group companies Brisa and Enerjisa Enerji took part in the project by supporting the construction of two schools. We will continue to be out in the field with our Sabancı Volunteers and Group companies until all wounds are healed.”
“WE SEE THE SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMY AS AN OPPORTUNITY”
Sharing his views on Sabancı Holding’s performance in the first half, Cenk Alper said: “With our dynamic portfolio management approach and a successful transformation strategy, we are expanding our core business while bringing new growth areas to our Group. In line with our medium-term roadmap announced in 2022, we are doubling our investments, directing 25 percent of our non-bank investments to our current business units, and 75 percent to the fields of energy and climate technologies, advanced material technologies and digital technologies, which we refer to as the ’new economy.’ We see the sustainability economy as a major opportunity that will strengthen value-oriented ecosystems and provide permanent benefits to all our stakeholders. Accordingly, we aim to increase our sustainability-related investments to $5 billion by the end of 2027.”
“WE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT WHILE GROWING OUR BUSINESS”
Cenk Alper added that it is essential to adopt an approach that prioritizes taking action for a sustainable future and continued: “In line with Sabancı Holding’s 2050 net-zero target, we will reduce our direct carbon emissions by at least 42 percent by 2030 in coordination with the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We aim to achieve a reduction of 15 percent by the end of 2025.”
“In 2022, all of our companies accelerated their efforts to increase the share of renewable energy in our energy consumption. Our ratio of renewable electricity to total electricity consumption saw a year-on-year growth of over three times. Some of our companies have already switched to 100-percent renewable electricity. In the coming years, we will continue to focus on our environmental impact while continuing our investments in the new economy,” he said.
“WE WILL COMMISSION ONE OF EVERY THREE WIND AND SOLAR POWER PLANT INVESTMENTS IN TURKEY”
Noting that the Group companies see sustainability as a compass in all investment processes, Cenk Alper said: “We remain determined in our pursuit of expanding our renewable energy portfolio investments in Turkey. In 2022, we produced 30 percent more renewable electricity compared to the previous year. Enerjisa Üretim will commission one out of every three wind and solar power plant investments in Turkey within the next four years. During this period, our own investments alone will increase Turkey’s installed wind power capacity by 10 percent. These investments will solidify our position in advanced material technologies in our Industry and Building Materials business units. Next year, we will commission $22 million worth of investments at our Kordsa Izmit facility. We also intend to finalize our calcium aluminate cement (CAC) investment worth $42.5 million at our Çimsa Mersin facility within the year. Meanwhile, Sabancı Ventures, our Corporate Venture Capital Fund, invested in the SunGreenH2 initiative, which develops equipment that produces green hydrogen using sustainable energy resources and water. Our Sabancı ARF Almost Ready to Fly program, which aims to contribute to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and open innovation, produced its first graduates. We made seed investments in eight startups that aim to commercialize their innovative ideas in the field of sustainability. We recently started the second implementation period of our program.”
Cenk Alper pointed out that they have taken steps to strengthen their ‘Sabancı of the World’ vision on top of these investments that will make Turkey the center of value-added production and continued: “In line with our vision of being a part of disruptive innovations in climate technologies, we have finalized our investment in the San Francisco-based pulsESG initiative, which develops compliance monitoring and insight software to improve sustainability performance in various industries. We also opened Kordsa’s first technical center in the Asia-Pacific region.”
“WE WERE RECOGNIZED AS A WORLD LEADER IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY”
Cenk Alper underlined that Sabancı Group continues to implement pioneering and exemplary projects in order to increase its positive impact on people and society: “Sabancı Republic Day Campaign, which we started two years ago to serve this end, has become the largest social responsibility movement in Turkey. In the 100th anniversary of our Republic, we will continue to protect the values of the Republic and Atatürk by working on the field with all our Group companies. We were also thrilled and proud to see that our project was deemed worthy of the 2023 International Corporate Social Responsibility Gold Award at the International CSR Excellence Awards, and Sabancı Holding was recognized as a ‘CSR World Leader’.”