Tesco acquires Turkish hypermarket chain

Tesco has announced that it has gained control of Kipa, a small Turkish hypermarket chain by acquiring the necessary majorities of the unlisted A shares and listed B shares. Kipa operates 5 hypermarkets in the Aegean region with reported sales in 2002 of £124m, pre tax profit of £4.7m and has over 1,500 employees. Turkey has a growing population of 70 million with an underdeveloped retail market. Terry Leahy, Chief Executive, said, "The acquisition of Kipa is an important step in our international strategy for long term growth. It is a great opportunity and an ideal entry vehicle: Kipa has a small and profitable chain of hypermarkets operating in a growing market. We will be working with existing management and three of the current Kipa directors to serve Turkish customers even better."