Abraaj Group Acquires Stake in Hepsiburada.com
The Abraaj Group (‘Abraaj’ or ‘The Group’), a leading investor operating in global growth markets, today announced the acquisition, through one of its Funds, of a minority stake in Hepsiburada.com (‘Hepsiburada’ or the ‘Company’), the market leader in the Turkish online retail sector.
The investment will be used by Hepsiburada to accelerate the rapid expansion of its market leading e-commerce operations in Turkey, including a custom-built, state-of-the-art fulfilment centre.
Established in 1998, Hepsiburada is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, and owned by the Dogan family, controlling shareholders of the Dogan Group, a leading Turkish conglomerate active in the media, energy, financial services and tourism sectors. The Company began as a vertical e-commerce player focused on IT hardware and has since diversified its portfolio. Its offering of 500,000 products in more than 30 different categories in 2014 is rapidly expanding and already has a broad range from mobile phones to cosmetics.
Hepsiburada has been a pioneer in growing the online retail sector in Turkey with a strong focus on offering the largest product selection available and improving the user experience by providing value-added services such as same-day delivery. It is also the country’s only online retailer with the requisite infrastructure to store credit card data, allowing customers to make swift online purchases using express check-out functionality.
Commenting on the transaction, Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive of The Abraaj Group, said: “Our investment in Hepsiburada represents a landmark transaction for Abraaj in the online retail space and marks our ninth investment in Turkey since 2007. Our strong credentials in Turkey are underpinned by proven partnerships, outstanding exits and a robust commitment to value creation, which we will continue to demonstrate using our significant regional and investment expertise to transition Hepsiburada into the next phase of its growth trajectory”.
For more information about either company, please visit www.abraaj.com or www.hepsiburada.com.