He was born in the Akçakaya village of Kayseri Province as the third son of Hacı Ömer Sabancı, who founded Turkey's second largest industrial and financial conglomerate, Sabancı Holding.
After dropping out of the secondary school, he started his career in the family-owned automobile dealing and cotton exporting companies.
He later served at several top management posts in different companies of Sabancı Holding.
[citation needed] Hacı Sabancı died on 26 June 1998, the day after his 63rd birthday, in Istanbul after a two-year struggle against lung cancer.
He was laid to rest in Adana next to his murdered brother Özdemir.