* Reysas sees IPO of 49 percent of real estate unit
* In talks with Gulf investors on stake sale pre-IPO
* Sales likely to decline in 2009 before rising in 2010 (Adds quotes, details)
By Ayla Jean Yackley
ISTANBUL, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Reysas, a Turkish freight company, expects to hold an initial public offering of 49 percent of its real-estate unit late this year or in January and will use the money it raises on investments, Chief Executive Durmus Doven said on Wednesday.
The Istanbul-based company is also in talks to sell the remaining half of the unit to ADIC and Qatar First Investment Bank before the IPO, Doven told Reuters in an interview. Revenue from the stake sale will allow Reysas to pay down its debts, he said.
After the IPO, Reysas will retain a 25.5 percent stake in the real-estate unit, as will its Gulf partners, while 49 percent will be floated, Doven said.
Reysas expects to return to year-end profit in 2009 after posting a loss of 6.82 million lira ($4.5 million) at the end of last year, when it expanded its real estate and freight business, Doven said.
Sales will decline from last year's 271.3 million lira because of Turkey's economic contraction, before rising again in 2010 as the company begins investing again, he said.
"First, we will sell the shares in the unit, and with the money from that, we will pay off all of Reysas' debts," Doven said. "These are debts (maturing in) three or four years, but we won't wait. Plus there will be the IPO of 49 percent. We will use all of that for investment in 2010."
Reysas' total debt stood at 286.1 million lira, of which 208 million lira was short- and long-term financial debt, at the end of June, according to its last income statement. Its market value was about 190 million lira, Reuters data showed.
The value of the real-estate unit was estimated at $185 million in June 2008, according to a note from BGC Partners.
"Reysas has grown an average 25 percent a year. The Turkish logistics sector has an unlimited potential," -- in part because Turkey now spends only about a third of Western nations on logistics, Doven said.
Reysas has expanded its real-estate holdings and now owns some 300,000 square metres of warehouses and 1.5 million square metres of undeveloped land. It targets 500,000 square metres of warehouse space within two years, he said.
The company is interested in expanding its logistics and warehouse operations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, he said.
Reysas shares fell 1.87 percent to 3.14 lira, outperforming the main index, which lost 2.5 percent. The share has climbed some 250 percent this year, outstripping the index's 75 percent rise. Last year, Reysas slumped 83 percent amid the global sell-off in equities.
The number of IPOs in Turkey has fallen to a yearly average of about six, compared with an average of some 25 in the 1990s.
The global slowdown in the IPO market amid the worldwide recession has also hit Turkey, where the only major public offering was last year from landline monopoly Turk Telekom, worth some $2 billion. (Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Rupert Winchester)