Merrill Lynch aims to be a market leader in Turkey
Posted by meb at February 11th, 2007
Istanbul – Referans
Merrill Lynch, one of the world’s leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies, opened its 38th worldwide office in Istanbul on Wednesday. The office currently employs 45 people, but the company target is to raise the number to 70 by the end of the year.
This is the latest step in Merrill Lynch’s continuing expansion of its Global Markets and Investment banking business in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“The opening of this new office in Istanbul reaffirms Merrill Lynch’s commitment to this important market — an area of key strategic focus for us. It will enable us to provide clients with the strengths of a global platform, combined with local market expertise,” said Merrill Lynch Turkey Global Markets and Investment Banking head Kubilay Cinemre.
Merrill Lynch is planning to make $15 billion worth of transactions in the stock markets this year, said Cinemre, adding that the company target is to increase that amount to $50 billion in three years.
“Among the foreign dealer institutions (stockbrokers), Merrill Lynch is the leader with a 19.9 percent share in the Turkish stock market. We want our company to be the leader in all intermediary transactions,” he said.
Merrill Lynch manages approximately $1.6 trillion assets globally, said Cinemre, noting that the company is looking to serve its clients locally. “Merrill Lynch will not manage things from London. It wants to be partners with the companies it will be working with,” he said.
“We believe there will be some developments in the corporate debenture issue as there have been no developments in these since 1989,” said Cinemre.
“We are providing investment banking, mergers, privatization, initial public offering, corporate finance, risk management, advisory, research, securities origination, brokerage, dealer and related services in Turkey,” said Cinemre and added that the company is still planning to be more active and contribute even more.
Merrill Lynch is looking to provide services for the management of the distribution, production and electricity trade risks, which may be created by the implementation of the delayed electricity distribution privatizations, said Cinemre.
Besides providing aid for the management of the interest and foreign currency risks, Merrill Lynch will also assist the administration concerning the risks created by the commodities markets, he said.
“A consolidation in the dealer institutions sector seems to be inevitable,” said Cinemre.
In the real state sector, Merrill Lynch is interested in both commercial and housing projects, stressed Cinemre. The Bosphorus Real Estate Investment Partnership’s (Merrill Lynch owned Bosphorus Holdings’s 50-50 partnership with Krea Gayrimenkul Holding) process to purchase 50 percent of the Eskişehir Neo shopping mall’s shares is ongoing, said Cinemre. “Here we have a business capacity of $1 billion,” he said.
Merrill Lynch also announced the following new employees who will be based in Istanbul:
Faruk Işık, former general manager, vice chairman and board member of the Ata Finance Group. Ömer Topbaş, former head of investment banking at Garanti Bank will be the head of Equities and Osman Kökmen will be the head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities. Kökmen was the former head of asset management and mutual funds at the Industrial Development Bank of Turkey (TSKB), headed the Treasury and a member of the board of directors of Capital Markets Board (SPK).
“We are pleased to welcome Faruk, Omer and Osman to Merrill Lynch and are looking forward to working together in growing and strengthening our presence in this important market,” said Cinemre.
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