Calik sees 2011 sales over $3 billion-INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1

CALIK/ (INTERVIEW, UPDATE 1)

* 2010 sales to jump 50 percent to $2.2 billion

* Targeting growth in energy, mining, telecoms

(Adds quotes, detail, background)

By Asli Kandemir

ISTANBUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Turkish energy-to-media conglomerate Calik Holding expects strong growth to continue into next year when sales should top $3 billion as it targets expansion in energy, mining and telecommunications.

The unlisted group, whose growth was powered in the first half by the energy, banking and media sectors, also expected sales this year to surge 50 percent to $2.2 billion, chief executive Berat Albayrak told Reuters in an interview.

He said Calik was assessing offers from foreign groups for partnerships in its banking activities, Banka Kombetare Tregtare (BTK) in Albania and Aktifbank in Turkey.

Calik, which took over the ATV-Sabah media group in 2008 and has around 20,000 employees in 14 countries, expected consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) this year to jump more than 25 percent to around $250 million.

“We aim to grow in the energy, mining and telecom sectors, while strengthening our presence in the finance, construction, textile and media sectors,” he said of 2011. “In the energy sector our goal is to focus on electricity production and distribution trade, oil exploration, oil trade and refining.”

The company’s partnership plan for a refinery plant at Ceyhan on the eastern Mediterranean would become clear in the first quarter, he said.

Calik’s Energy unit is, along with Italian group ENI, building a 555-kilometre trans-Anatolian pipeline to take oil to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea and which will initially carry one million barrels of crude oil a day.

The group will take over the Yesilirmak power distribution network in northern Turkey at the end of this year after winning a tender with a $441.5 million bid a year ago.

Albayrak said the company had also sought prequalification for power grid tenders on the Asian side of Istanbul, the Mediterranean and Toroslar regions. These tenders will be held on Nov. 24.

He said the company could consider public offerings for companies in one or two strategic sectors after 2012. (Reporting by Asli Kandemir; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Dan Lalor)

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