How Salt Bae's debt-laden steakhouse is highlighting major issues in Turkey's economy

@nusr_et/Instagram

Nusret Gökçe, aka Salt Bae, is a Turkish butcher, chef, and restaurateur.

• Viral meme sensation and chef Nusret Gökçe, more commonly known as Salt Bae, has some serious issues piling up at his restaurant in Dubai frequented by celebrities and sports stars.
• The steakhouse chain's owner, Turkish firm Dogus Holdings, is struggling to repay foreign-exchange loans after the lira plunged in value.
• Dogus is now seeking to restructure its debt, having spent big on the hospitality sector in recent years despite the slump in the Turkish economy.

The company which owns the steakhouse chain popularized by viral meme sensation and chef Nusret Gökçe, aka Salt Bae, is struggling to repay its debts amid a major restructuring.

Nusr-Et, a restaurant famed for its videos of celebrities eating there, is owned by Dogus Holding, an investment group owned by Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk. Dogus signed an agreement with lenders last December to help restructure its $2.5 billion in debt but still has a mountain of liabilities in 2019, according to Bloomberg.

The company's liabilities increased by 17% to 28.6 billion liras ($5.2 billion), according to financial statements published on its website. It's part of a broader malaise for Turkish companies which are struggling to repay dollar-denominated loans following the massive collapse in the lira's value last year.

Turkey has now entered recession, making lending conditions even trickier for companies with foreign debt.

Sports stars such as Lionel Messi and Paul Pogba have eaten at the restaurant, which was made famous after "Salt Bae" made viral videos of him cutting meat seductively and sprinkling salt over it. Nusr-Et has branches in cities such as Abu Dhabi, Doha, New York City, Miami, Dubai and Istanbul.

Dogus is now rapidly selling its hospitality holdings to help pay off its debts and recently offloaded the Park Hyatt hotel in Istanbul to Nusret Turizm Yatirim AS, owned by the founder of Nusr-Et, according to a filing by Ankara-based antitrust board, per Bloomberg.