CEO’s Message

Dear Stakeholders,

We are going through a period that witnesses a multitude of developments on a national as well as global scale. The earthquake with the epicentre of Kahramanmaraş province, which occurred in February 2023 and affected ten other regions, rocked each and every one of us and the entire nation to the core. May God rest the souls of those that lost their lives. Our deepest condolences to their families and loved ones that survived. We wish them patience to endure the grief and a speedy recovery for those injured. We, as a Group and also our stakeholders, entire subsidiaries, our fellow colleagues, and business partners will continue our support and endeavours together with the non-governmental organisations of which we are members and executives to heal the wounds caused by the earthquake.

2022 was a year in which we fulfil large-scale investments and repay investment loans long before their due dates thanks to the created cash flow, thus positively improve our financial performance.

With the year 2023, we will continue to diversify our dynamic portfolio within and around the focus sectors via geographic and synergistic methods and grow through new investments.

• As Shell & Turcas revolutionised retail in the fuel sector and became the most preferred brand of the sector, we reinforced our leadership by increasing our retail sales market share to 22% thanks to our 1,153 branches throughout Türkiye and to a million customers that visit us every day. For 2023, we will maintain our retail focus with a target of 15 million coffee and 5 million sandwich sales. We continued to create added value for our economy by raising the number of countries we export from the Mineral Oil and Grease Production Plant in Derince to 70. Thanks to the agreement signed on EV fast charging stations to be installed at Shell stations country-wide with TOGG electric vehicles and its subsidiary TRUGO charging network, we are starting to serve electric vehicles all around Türkiye. In 2023 which marks Shell’s entry into the Turkish market and the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye, we will preserve our top position by acting as trailblazers in numerous fields.
• Our entity in the electricity sector, that is, our Denizli Combined Natural Gas Cycle Power Plant with an installed power of 800MW constructed with state-of-the-art technology under the RWE & Turcas partnership, maintains its critical role in meeting the increasing power demand of our country. Able to meet more than 1% of the power need of our country when working at the full capacity output, our power plant is among the most efficient natural gas power plants in Türkiye, with its 58% efficiency rate.
• Our flagship in the tourism sector, Conrad Istanbul Bosphorus, mitigated the effects of the pandemic with its high occupancy rate and pricing policies in 2022 and largely repaid its long-term renovation investment loans. Our company welcomed the year 2023 with the target of materialising a new Italian restaurant investment as well as a Solar Power Plant (SPP) investment of 5MW installed capacity that would meet the entire power needs of our hotel. Marking its 30^th anniversary this year, Conrad became the second hotel in our country to be awarded the Professional Certificate in Sustainable Tourism by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council in 2022, in addition to several other international awards.
• The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Bodrum, which is the latest large-scale mixed (tourism-real estate) investment, contributed to the development of quality real estate and tourism industries both country-wide and specifically in the city of Bodrum, and in addition, to the rise in per-tourist foreign currency spending, and will continue doing so with the help of our long-term villa rental model. The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Bodrum, will be professionally managed by expert teams for 30 years and introduce the legendary service mentality of the brand to the villa owners.
• To globalise Aksoy Holding and expand our global footprint, we are excited to commence our investments in tourism and real estate in the US – primarily focused on the State of Florida. Within this scope, we founded four joint venture companies in the first quarter of 2023 with experienced and prestigious real estate firms based in the US by establishing Aksoy International Holding in Turkey and affiliated project investment companies abroad. We aim to raise the number of states and cities where we will be active, expand asset classes in which we invest, establish new partnerships, and increase the number of investments we carry out in the upcoming period.
• Within the international trade business unit, we have already expanded our distribution operations for Shell and Hyundai Oilbank, which are the top segment mineral oil brands, of which the Aksoy International Trade are the Macro Distributors in Iraq and the MENA region by obtaining the representative rights of Hyundai Oilbank brands of Aksoy Nigeria in the said country. Our target in the upcoming period is to grow our international trade activities, carry out trading of other fuel products, and also to seize the local mineral oil toll-blending opportunities. Our Technological Solutions department within our trade operations will continue to carry out global sales and representation and improve products with advanced technologies and know-how in aviation, security, and defence industries both in markets where we are currently active and in new markets.

As a group of companies that has investing written all over its DNA, is entrepreneurial, agile, dynamic, and exemplary with its respectability, we will continue to grow in all aspects of our diversified and hybrid portfolio in Türkiye and to possess leader and/or leading players in its sector.

While the financial sustainability of our companies remains a priority, we will acutely maintain our sustainability work on social and environmental effects in all our activities by considering these.

Both personally and on behalf of our Board of Management, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and greetings to our esteemed colleagues and all our stakeholders accompanying us with utmost devotion in materialising investments that would create added value for our country.

Kind Regards,

Batu AKSOY
CEO & Vice Chairperson of the Board
April 2023