Bloomberg have reported that Arcelik, Turkey’s biggest maker of household appliances who are known in the UK under the Beko brand name, slumped to the lowest in almost three years in Istanbul trading after profit plunged 51 percent last year and Merrill Lynch have downgraded the company’s stock.
Arcelik shares dropped 2.9 percent and ended up down 2.2% at 6.65 liras yesterday morning in Istanbul, bringing the company’s market value to 2.7 billion liras ($2.2 billion).
Net income at Istanbul based Arcelik which is owned by Turkey’s biggest company Koc Holding AS, slid to 158 million liras in 2007 from 324 million liras the previous year, the company said. That missed the 249 million liras average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg by some margin.
The profit statement is a “blow to shareholders,” said Merrill Lynch in a report. They added that they had downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy” because of weak domestic sales and surging commodity prices.
