Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at May 14th, 2007

Vice President of Shell Retail for Central and Southern Europe Istvan Kapitany said yesterday that Turkey’s recent economic performance has turned the country into a shining star in its region. “No investor can disregard this,” he said, adding that success will continue in the long run. Kapitany was speaking to Today’s Zaman at Shell’s Eco-Marathon contest held at France’s Nogaro race circuit. “Shell’s investments in Turkey will continue at an increasing pace,” he said. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 14th, 2007

The new law on property sales to foreigners, legislated two years ago, has not yet been put into to practice, meaning that property registration procedures are still taking as long as six months and causing difficulties to the real estate and construction industries.

Foreigners lose their desire to buy property in Turkey because of the length of the legal process. New arrangements removing the approval of local commanders for sales and land registry first require the drawing up of lists of strategic lands that cannot be sold to foreigners. However, as Land (more…)

Posted by meb at May 13th, 2007

Turkcell posted a 45 percent annual rise in first quarter net profit on Wednesday, but Turkey’s leading mobile phone operator voiced caution over uncertainties generated by a domestic political crisis. Net profit jumped to $272.1 million from $187.2 million.

The company added a record number of new subscriptions in the quarter and said revenues rose 14 percent to $1.3 billion, while average revenue (more…)

Posted by meb at May 13th, 2007

The transfer agreement for the Port of Mersin is being signed today between the Privatization Authority (ÖİB) and the PSA-Akfen joint initiative group, which won the tender to take over the facility in August 2005 with a $755 million bid. Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan is expected to attend at the signing ceremony in Ankara. Following the signing the funds will be transferred to the coffers of the ÖİB.The port, which belonged to the Turkish State Railways (TCDD), was taken onto the privatization agenda in June 2005 and its sale was agreed within two months. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 12th, 2007

Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlooks on the Republic of Turkey’s foreign currency and local currency Issuer Default ratings (“IDR”) to Stable from Positive, owing to heightened political risks. At the same time, the agency has affirmed the IDRs at ‘BB-’ (BB minus), the Short-term foreign currency rating at ‘B’ and the Country Ceiling at ‘BB’. “Although Turkey’s current prudent fiscal policy stance, impressive growth performance and strong FDI inflows are consistent with improving macroeconomic fundamentals, negative political shocks have raised event risk and clouded the credit outlook,” says Edward Parker, Head of Emerging Europe (more…)

Posted by meb at May 12th, 2007

The İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) generated the highest returns in the Turkish financial investment market in April.
According to Turkish Statistics Institute (Turkstat) data, the IMBK earned investors an 8.6 percent real rate in April. While investments in gold (bullion) depreciated by 0.7 percent, investments in the US dollar earned 4.55 percent, the euro earned 2.68 percent and bank deposit interest (more…)

Posted by meb at May 12th, 2007

Bosch Heating Co. will make investments worth 2.1 million euros in Turkey this year, coming on top of last year’s 1.9 million euro investment.Bosch Turkey General Manager Roger Meinert said they had made 59.1 million euros in investments since 1992. “This shows our confidence about Turkey — the election process will not affect us,” he said. Speaking at a press conference in İzmir on Friday Meinert explained that their aim was to make their factory in Manisa an exportation base for (more…)

Posted by meb at May 12th, 2007

Following their interest in Turkish hotels, shopping centers and residential projects, foreign investors are now interested in Turkey’s housing sector with European and Middle Eastern investors are offering partnerships to Turkish real estate investors.

Uğur Dumankaya, board member of Dumankaya İnşaat, which is planning to construct 15,000 houses in five years, said that they had many partnership offers from foreign investors that could lead to many future deals. “Turkey is one of the most popular countries in terms of foreign investment. People (more…)