IFR Turkey 2010 League tables

Turkey has weathered the financial crisis better than any had expected and it has emerged the other side with its reputation enhanced. In a neighbourhood where much has gone wrong, Turkey has seemingly done everything right. Much of Turkey’s current success stems from how it rebuilt its financial system after the collapse of 2001. It eschewed foreign debt, tamed inflation, strengthened the local banking system and created strong, independent regulators. All these factors have allowed the country to escape the fate that so many other Eastern...

On May 6 and 7, over 2000 corporate executives, brokers, auditors and other assorted service providers met to discuss why so few Turkish companies sought a public listing. The IPO Turkey Campaign – Istanbul Summit, organised by the Istanbul Stock exchange, had three aims: to find suitable candidates for listing, to address the hurdles they faced in going public and to emphasise that having a deep public equity market was a crucial component of national economic growth. Speaking at the event, Huseyin Erkan, chairman and CEO of the ISE was...

Turkey is unlikely to become a major player in the international capital markets until it manages to develop its domestic capital markets. In the local equity markets, serious efforts are underway to improve liquidity and sophistication. However, entrenched obstacles need to be overcome before meaningful progress can take place. One statistic perhaps best sums up the dichotomy at the heart of Turkey’s domestic capital markets: foreign investors own 70% of the domestic equity market. This shows that foreign, institutional investors approve the...

Turkey underlined its intent to use 2010 as a year to build credibility in the international markets, by becoming the first emerging market bond issuer of the year. The Republic of Turkey (Ba2/BB–/BB+) issued a blockbuster US$2bn, 30-year deal in the first week of January that was very well received by all in the market. The deal was led by HSBC, JPMorgan and UBS who generated demand of US$7.3bn from 260 accounts, covering the book within hours of the deal being announced. As a result of this demand, the Republic was able to price this deal...

Turkey’s privatisation agenda is one of the boldest of any country in the world. The government has a deep seated belief in the need to remove the state from the ownership and running of most sectors of the economy. It also needs the money to finance its on-going budget deficit. As a result, the government has honed a process that works effectively in transferring operating rights, as well as outright sales of assets. However, the high profile deals of the past, such as the privatisation of Turk Telecom into a bull market, will be hard to...

On May 5, Garanti Bank became the penultimate major Turkish bank to tap into the international bank loan market when it sold a one year dual currency loan deal to 41 banks. The deal saw demand of €850m, after an initial target of €600m. The books were eventually closed with the deal sized at €617m and US$116.9m. As a result of the increase in demand, the deal was able to replace two existing facilities of US$109m and €517m that were signed a year ago. Senior mandated lead arrangers on the transactions were Commerzbank and Standard Chartered,...