Turkish retail giant applies for suspension of bankruptcy

Turkish retail chain Be?endik, which also owns Real hypermarket stores in the country, has applied for a suspension of bankruptcy, with a court deciding to appoint trustees as a measure.

The group made its application for its 46 Be?endik stores and 12 Real stores, as well as its restaurant chain, separately on April 7, according to the application documents, daily Hürriyet learned on April 12. 

The Anatolian 3rd Court of First Instance of Trade decided to appoint trustees for the companies and take the companies under protection against any garnish orders as a measure on April 8. 

Financial consultant Mehmet Yorulmazer and U?ur Gürsoy were named as trustees by the court. 

According to the documents, the companies have said problems in the economy played a main role in hitting their finances. Be?endik stores have been under a 130.7-million-Turkish-Lira debt and the restaurant chain has been under an 11.4-million-lira debt. 

Be?endik acquired Real stores from Germany's Metro Group in 2014. The company has six Real stores in Istanbul, four in Ankara and one each in the Aegean province of ?zmir, the Central Anatolian province of Konya and the Mediterranean resort of Antalya. Some 720 people work in Real stores, according to the documents. 

Be?endik's chief executive told Reuters in September 2015 that the company had planned to buy 10 stores from Tesco Kipa as part of expansion plans that could ultimately lead to a stock market listing. Tesco's subsidiary in Turkey, however, decided to hang onto some of its stores instead of selling them to rival Be?endik after their performance improved strongly, it said in January. 

Be?endik experienced a problematic period in financial terms in 2007. An Ankara court then...