Turkey becomes a “life ring” for global giants
Posted by meb at August 14th, 2008
Turkey has contributed to the balance sheets of the global giants significantly, reported daily Hürriyet yesterday.
Many firms, including TeliaSonera, Vodafone, Pepsi, Coca Cola, ING, Phillip Morris and Zentiva, said in their financial statements that the demand from Turkey has boosted their balance sheets.
The top sectors that influenced foreign investors in terms of growth include tobacco, telecommunication, beverages, personal care, pharmaceuticals and automotive. Turkey ranked 12th among the countries that contributed to Pepsi’s growth. Meanwhile, the growth of Coca Cola in Turkey has surpassed the firm’s global growth.
International markets have become influential in Coca Cola’s 17 percent turnover growth in the second quarter of the year, said Muhtar Kent, chief executive officer of the firm. “Our international operations brought 5 percent volume growth. In particular, Turkey, China, India, Eastern Europe and the Middle East were influential in the growth.”
ING, which purchased Turkey’s Oyak Bank for $2.8 billion, puts the bank at the primary position in terms of its growth targets. Furthermore, Philip Morris, which sells 5.4 billion packages of cigarette in Turkey, has underlined its trust in Turkey. Mobile firm operators TeliaSonera and Vodafone also declared Turkey as the factors for the increased turnover and the rapid rise in users.
FDI data for June
Meanwhile, the Turkish Treasury announced that Turkey attracted $1.24 billion in foreign direct investment during June, Anatolia news agency reported Monday.
Capital inflow, including international investors’ transfers concerning their partnership shares in domestic capital companies they joined with their new or existing companies, in Turkey reached $986 million in June. The manufacturing sector accounted for $654 million of the total inflow. European Union countries were the source of $919 million of the total $986 million.
Net foreign direct investment in the first half of the year totaled nearly $1.6 billion. Between January and June, 1,881 international companies operated in mass and retail commerce, real estate and the manufacturing sector.
Financial intermediaries accounted for more than $3 billion of the more than $6 billion total foreign direct investments between January and June. There are 198 foreign capital companies with registered capital of more than $500,000 that were founded, opened branch offices or partnered with foreigners over this period.
Chemicals topped the list of foreign companies among manufacturers, followed by machine and equipment manufacturing and food production. Istanbul hosts 10,967 foreign companies, among 20,189 firms operating in Turkey.
Among foreign companies operating in Istanbul, 3,942 were in mass and retail sale, 2,161 in manufacturing, and 1,568 in real estate and business activities.
source: Turkish Daily News
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