OREANDA-NEWS. July 11, 2011. Renaissance Capital, the leading emerging markets investment bank, today initiated research coverage of Turkish food retailers, marking the expansion of the Firm’s EMEA retail sector coverage, and representing the second Turkish industry sector to be covered by Renaissance’s award-winning research team.

Differentiating its coverage of the Turkish food retail sector, Renaissance Capital benchmarks Turkish retailers BIM and Migros against peer companies in Russia (where Renaissance covers X5 Retail Group, Magnit, Dixy, O’Key, Seventh Continent and M.video).

The report, authored by Renaissance analysts Natalya Zagvozdina, Ulyana Lenvalskaya and Yavuz Uzay, notes that Magnit has a similar, market-leading position in Russia to that of BIM in Turkey, and a similar focus on price-competitive offers in its stores, supported by efficient in-house logistics. The report highlights that Migros was off investors’ and analysts’ radars before completing its recent SPO. The research team draws a comparison with X5 Retail Group, noting that both companies operate multi-format models; both are market leaders (number one in the case of X5; number two in the case of Migros) with strong brand names; and both target a mass market and an above-average-income consumer group.

“There are definite similarities between Russian and Turkish consumers and their retail markets...but there are also abundant differences,” the report says. “Concluding on differences, Russia appears more promising in terms of achieving a higher level of modern retail penetration, having a greater share of hypermarkets in total retail, on overall consumer income and spending growth (with a higher share of consumer loans) and, last but not least, we see Russian-leading listed and privately owned retailers as more aggressive in their expansion and market share grab aspirations,” the report says.

On 24 June, Renaissance Capital initiated coverage of Turkish stocks with a report on the Turkish telecoms sector.