05.12.2012 18:20
German consulting and service group Allgeier SE dove into Turkey's underdeveloped consulting and recruitment industries on Wednesday, signing an agreement with its new Turkish partner group Oxygen Consultancy, which both firms said would help...
German consulting and service group Allgeier SE dove into Turkey's underdeveloped consulting and recruitment industries on Wednesday, signing an agreement with its new Turkish partner group Oxygen Consultancy, which both firms said would help Allgeier "open a door in the Middle East."
The deal will see Allgeier SE acquire a 90 percent stake in Oxygen Consultancy, though the deal "will see management stay in place and the same business model remain," said Oxygen CEO Çağrı Alkaya, who spoke at a joint press conference with Allgeier President Carl Georg Dürschmidt on Wednesday. "This acquisition has been made because the firm is run by European standards," Dürschmidt told Today's Zaman of the deal, adding, "Our own success has been preserving, not destroying, the dynamics of successful companies."
In Allgeier's sights is one of Europe's only booming economies and an early start in a market that "isn't nearly as developed as it should be given the market potential," said Alkaya of Turkey's consulting and higher-end work placement industries. Oxygen and Allgeier, which has growth an average of 43 percent annually since 2005 and provided consulting services to European giants like Lufthansa, Siemens and Bayer, is well positioned to take advantage of that gap, Dürschmidt said, telling the press that "I hope we can add some Turkish firms to the list" of Allgeier's partners. The 5,500-strong firm focuses on consulting services and finding specialized labor for needy companies in the IT, telecomm, energy and automotive sectors. Oxygen, which has for the past four years clocked an average growth of 20 percent, traditionally has placed its focus on the medical industry and IT sector.
Speaking of Oxygen's widening operations in the Middle East, Alkaya also suggested the acquisition would help Allgeier gain markets in countries neighboring Turkey. "This opens up the Middle East for Allgeier," he said, stating that Oxygen has done consulting work in Iraq, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Greece. The Wednesday signing comes after months of negotiations between the two firms, and a final deal was tentatively agreed to in October before this week's signing.
(Cihan/Today's Zaman)