Koc Holding Net Profit Falls 10% As Non-Finance Margins Hit

Koc Holding AS (KCHOL.IS), Turkey's largest conglomerate by sales, reported Friday a 10% fall in first-quarter net profit, reflecting margin contraction in its non-finance segments.

The company's net profit for the first-quarter fell to 538 million Turkish lira ($292.5 million) from TRY597.2 million for the year earlier period, according to a statement on the Istanbul Stock Exchange's website.

Sales rose 28% to TRY17.6 billion from TRY13.8 billion.

"Particularly, there is a margin contraction in non-finance segments of the company, but income from sales is above my expectation," said Mehmet Emin Zumrut, an analyst with Istanbul-based Erste Securities.

Koc Holding operates in five main segments: energy, automotive, consumer durables, finance and others.

Companies operating under Koc Holding include Ford Otomotiv Sanayii AS (FROTO.IS), or Ford Otosan, and Tofas (TOASO.IS) in the automotive sector; Arcelik (ARCLK.IS), Beko and Demirdokum in the durable goods sector; Aygaz (AYGAZ.IS) and Opet in the energy sector and Yapi Kredi (YKBNK.IS) and Koc Finansal in the financial services industry. It also owns Turkey's sole oil refiner Tupras (TUPRS.IS).

-By Yeliz Candemir, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]