Investment
Istanbul Fast Ferries Co. Inc., or IDO, a subsidiary of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality,has been privatized in April 2011 through a public auction. IDO, with its 17 conventional ferries, 10 fast ferries and 25 sea buses is the biggest maritime passenger transportation companies in the world, operating within İstanbul and nearby towns, providing 40% of İstanbul's maritime transportation.
Together with Tepe (30%), Akfen (30%) and Souter Investments (30%), our company SERA GROUP Investments (10%) has given the highest bid in the auction at $861m and won the tender for buying 100% of the IDO shares.
The local side of the consortium already own stakes in TAV, the leading airport operator in Turkey, with a reported 753m EUR turnover in 2010. Our partner Souter is a private investment vehicle of Brian Souter, founder of UK transport group Stagecoach. The listed company Stagecoach is one of UK's biggest bus and coach operator which carries around 2.5 million passengers daily. They have a fleet of 14.000 buses operating in the U K and the US. Also a major UK rail operator and own 49% of Virgin rail group.
IDO, which transported 50 million passengers and 7 million vehicles in 2010, had sales of 347 million Turkish liras ($231 million) in 2010. As a consortium, we are planning to optimize operations, increase brand awareness, generate additional revenue and add new products to boost sales and increase profitability of IDO company. The experience of TAV and linkage to Ataturk Airport is invaluable as we expect to increase connectivity of the ferries with the airport as well as intercity locations.