Turkey Financial News

Dutch property group Corio NV announced on Tuesday the purchase of the Iskenderun shopping centre project in Turkey, adding that the company’s total investment is expected to be 116 million euros.

The 55,000 square meter (592,015 square feet) shopping centre has a predefined net initial yield of at least 8 percent, in line with Corio’s other investments in Turkey, and is expected to open in the first half of 2010, the Corio NV said in a statement issued on the company’s website. (more…)

New data have revealed that the number of companies which closed down in the first half of the year was significantly higher compared to the same period last year, while fewer companies were opened so far this year compared to last.
The Trade Registry figures released yesterday by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) showed that the number of liquidated companies climbed by 19.24 percent in the first half over the same period last year. (more…)

Turkey ranks 41st among the best countries for doing business, according to the US “Forbes” magazine, while Romania takes the 40th place, Bulgaria is 44th, Croatia is 45th and Greece takes the 53rd place.

Only one country from the former Communist block - Estonia has ranked among the top 10. Estonia joined the European Union in 2004.

Denmark is number one on the list of best countries for business and has improved its ranking by moving up thee places compared to 2007. (more…)

The privatization processes for the Turkish national lottery (Milli Piyango), the country’s highways and sugar processing plants are expected to begin in July, however Halkbank’s privatization has been suspended, says the head of the Privatization Administration (ÖİB).

ÖİB President Metin Kilci, in an interview with Anka news agency, said the ÖİB was waiting for the relevant bills to pass in Parliament for the launch of the privatization processes for Milli Piyango and highways.

Milli Piyango’s privatization — a process long seen as stagnant after deferral due to early elections and a subsequent presidential vote last year — was postponed from May until June. The bill enacted to open tenders for the privatization of Milli Piyango was recently approved by a parliamentary subcommittee, while the bill on highway privatization is still pending in Parliament. Kilci stated the privatization processes for Milli Piyango and highways would be launched one week after the relevant bills are published in the Official Gazette. (more…)

Grundig Elektronik, a Turkish television-set maker, aims to increase its market share to 5 percent with the Grundig brand and 15 percent with all of its brands and original design manufacturer sales by 2010 in Europe, said the general manager of Grundig Elektronik yesterday.

Grundig also plans to develop its product range by phasing out production of cathode-ray tube televisions by 2010 to focus on production of liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions, Oğuzhan Öztürk added. “Our aim is to increase our turnover by 20 percent to reach YTL 1.7 billion in 2008. We will increase our television production volume from the current 3.2 million to 5.5 million by 2013, which comprises only sales of LCDs,” Öztürk told reporters at Grundig’s Beylikdüzü production plant in Istanbul. (more…)

A record number of high-level bureaucrats, government ministers and businessmen from Turkey and Asia-Pacific countries will gather today to celebrate the official opening of the Turkey-Asia Pacific Foreign Trade Bridge 2 at İstanbul’s WOW Convention Center.

Organized by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) and supported by Turkey’s Foreign Trade Undersecretariat and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the summit will mark the occasion of growing business relations between Asian countries and Turkey in recent years. (more…)

In what analysts see as a major vote of confidence for the Turkish economy, General Electric (GE) has decided to move all managing operations in the eastern and African growth markets (EAGM) to İstanbul.

Officials from GE Healthcare and Turkey’s Investment Support & Promotion Agency said at a joint press conference on Friday that GE Healthcare, a $17 billion healthcare business, has decided to combine the EAGM region into a single “International Diagnostic Imaging” operation and conduct its activities from İstanbul. The company will split a major part of its operations from its London center and move it to İstanbul. The company’s Western European operations will still handled by the London center.

With this new move, GE Healthcare will coordinate all its operations in 80 countries in four major regions — Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Africa — from its İstanbul center. Richard di Benedetto, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, International-EAGM will be overseeing the company’s operations. The EAGM region accounted for more than $600 million in revenue in 2007 and is expected to double the figure to $1.2 billion by 2010 thanks to the new structuring. (more…)

The world’s largest beverage company Coca Cola has decided to manage a significant proportion of its global operations from Turkey by moving one of its centers to the country, daily Vatan reported Friday. The top executives of Coca Cola Turkey were informed Thursday that Coca Cola is planning to move its Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle Asia, Caucasus, Middle East and all-Africa center to Turkey, the newspaper said. The global player is expected to manage almost two fifths of its global operations from Turkey.

Approximately three weeks ago, Alpaslan Korkmaz, head of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency, which was established to attract foreign investment to Turkey, had announced that one of the world’s top 50 companies would move its center, which has a turnover of $17 billion, to Turkey. (more…)