Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at June 17th, 2008

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…)

Posted by meb at June 14th, 2008

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…)

Posted by meb at June 8th, 2008

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…)

Posted by meb at June 8th, 2008

Turkey’s Fiba Holding, which sold 46 percent shares in Finansbank for $2.76 billion to the National Bank of Greece (NBG) in 2006, used the money obtained from the sale to invest in several sectors, including energy, retail and shipbuilding, according to the firm’s owner.

“We have used a portion of the money in energy, retail and shipbuilding investments. We have also added capital to the banks abroad. All money is spent now,” Hüsnü Özyeğin, owner of Fiba Group, said during the opening ceremony of a cinema theater in Gaziantep last week. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 30th, 2008

A draft bill prepared by Justice and Development Party (AK Party) İstanbul deputy Mehmet Domaç will exempt yachts, cutters and motorboats from vehicle and motor vehicle taxes.

The bill aims to persuade Turkish private vessel owners who currently register their boats with foreign countries to return to running their vessels under the Turkish flag. The regulation also aims to increase demand for maritime businesses by helping them lower costs, which have risen with increasing fuel costs. The bill has already been presented to a parliamentary commission and the government has given its full support to the proposals laid out in it. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 27th, 2008

Amid a global credit crunch that stemmed from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and growing domestic concerns over the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, the U.S. dollar may climb to YTL 1.50 in the upcoming period, a recent survey has revealed.

Turkish capital and money markets are basing their game plans upon three scenarios, according to the views of 20 analysts surveyed by business daily Referans. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 23rd, 2008

Antares shopping mall opened in Ankara’s Etlik district Wednesday. Covering on an area of 410,000 square meters, the center is a candidate to be the biggest mall in Turkey. The project is launched by Dolunay İnşaat, the operating partner of Turkish corporate Nata İnşaat, which is a project developer for the construction sector.

“Antares is the largest real estate investment project established with the use of domestic capital of Turkey,” said Uğur Göksel, the project manager of Antares. Metro Group Asset Management, a cross-divisional service company perform an array of services in such areas as real estate, gastronomy and marketing, is responsible from the management of the shopping center. (more…)

Posted by meb at May 21st, 2008

Former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Primakov, currently the president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is on a visit to Turkey to seek for business opportunities between the two countries.

Commercial relations are already at a high level because Russia is Turkey’s main natural gas provider and Russian tourists spend $2 billion annually in Turkey. (more…)