Turkey's Sabanci Holding cement unit sees 2015 sales rising 10-15 pct

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ISTANBUL, March 24 (Reuters) - The cement business of Turkey's Sabanci Holding expects its sales to rise 10-15 percent this year and is looking for acquisition opportunities, its chief executive said.

Sabanci's cement group, consisting of cement companies Akcansa and Cimsa, posted a 16 percent increase in sales to 2.5 billion lira ($980 million) in 2014, the cement unit's Chief Executive Officer Hakan Gurdal told reporters late on Monday.

"We are chasing opportunities for growth abroad. Financial structures of Akcansa and Cimsa are getting stronger, creating serious potential. We currently have the ability to borrow up to $1.5 billion to fund an acquisition," Gurdal said.

Sabanci Holding was in a consortium that offered bids for some of the assets put up for sale by cement makers Lafarge (Paris: FR0000120537 - news) and Holcim (LSE: 0QKY.L - news) after their mega-merger. But Irish cement maker CRH (NYSE: CRH - news) agreed to buy the assets for 6.5 billion euros.

Sabanci has long been interested in acquisitions, but has not bought any companies. Gurdal explained this was due to geopolitical risks in Turkey's neighbouring region.

Gurdal also said the group had an investment target of 300-330 million lira, most of which would be invested in a factory in the Aegean province of Afyon. The factory is expected to start producing in May 2016.

($1 = 2.5597 liras) (Reporting by Ebru Tuncay; Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by David Dolan and Susan Fenton)