Victoria PLC sells Turkish company Graniser

The UK company has sold the Turkish tile business to Hasan Akgün for €36.8 million.

Victoria PLC, a British flooring group listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market, has announced the sale of its Izmir-based tile manufacturer Graniser, which it acquired in 2021. The transaction, valued at €36.8 million, comprises a €10 million cash payment and the assumption of €26.8 million in net debt. The buyer, Hasan Akgün, is the founder of the Akgün Group, a prominent Turkish conglomerate operating in sectors such as ceramics and building materials, automotive, logistics and oil which employs over 5,000 people across 17 factories.

The transaction is part of a strategy to improve Victoria’s profitability, further supported by a long-term supply agreement with Hasan Akgün to procure tiles at production cost prices. As stated by Philippe Hamers, CEO of Victoria, the sale and the new partnership with Akgün will positively impact Victoria’s earnings by reducing the group’s leverage by approximately 0.5 times.

Graniser has been negatively impacted by recent instability in several of its key markets, and for the 12 months ended 30 March 2024, Graniser generated audited underlying revenues of TL994.8 million (about £30.1 million) and underlying EBITDA of TL13.4 million (about £0.9 million).

For Victoria PLC, which already operates in the ceramic tile sector in Italy and Spain, the investment in Graniser three years ago was driven by the desire to diversify the Group’s ceramic tile manufacturing footprint into a lower energy, labour and raw material price environment. With the stipulated manufactured-cost supply agreement, Victoria has kept this strategy intact, while freeing up capital to redeploy into other business areas.

Victoria PLC’s ceramics division (UK & Europe Ceramic Tiles) ended the first half of the 2025 fiscal year (to 28 September 2024) with a sales volume of 17.4 million sqm (-4.9% on the same period of the previous year), earnings of £151.4 million (-9%) and an EBITDA margin of 12.9%.