League Tables

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. In little over a decade, Turkey has gone from being the sick man to the rich man of Europe. While other European countries have come through the crisis indebted, stunted and broke, Turkey has gone from strength to strength. Last year was a watershed, with growth coming in at 8.9...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. As much as any other country, Turkey has had its 2011 sovereign issuance programme impacted by events. The huge global volatility caused by political upheaval in the Middle East, the natural disasters in Asia and the on-going global financial situation have all left their mark on the country’s issuance plans. But after five months of the year, the Republic can look back with a certain sense of relief. The country’s international issuance programme for 2011 was set at US$5.5bn, the...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Turkey’s banking sector has a reputation as a fortress: sector wide capital adequacy rates of 17%, record profits and negligible NPLs all point to the strength of the business. But on one metric they are still very risky. The majority of bank funding still comes from deposits with a term life on three or four months. With demand for longer dated loans increasing rapidly, the banks have been running cavernous asset liability mismatches. In the last twelve months however, strides have...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. For a government that enjoys power as much as it does, Turkey’s AK Party has made a lot of money by selling the country’s power assets. Over the course of the last year or so, the government has sold 12 separate electricity distribution companies raising some US$12.3bn. It is now looking to build on that success with the privatisation of some 20,000MW of electricity generation assets. Added to its plans are the long awaited privatisations of ports, roads, bridges and tunnels, as...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Depending on whom you ask, Turkey’s equity capital markets are either doing quite well, or are stuck in the doldrums. This largely depends on the time frame in which you analyse the market. In 2010 there were 23 IPOs, a recent record, especially compared to 2009 when there were none. But in 2011, there have only been four, with a number of large-sized cancelations. As far as Huseyin Erkan, chairman and CEO of the Istanbul stock exchange (ISE) is concerned, the market is coming along...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. Turkey’s growing pains in the international capital markets are exemplified by its REIT sector. Known by the Turkish acronym of GYO, this sector has been around for a long time. Indeed the first deals were done in the early 1990s. But interest in REITs soon went into abeyance. A combination of issuer greed and international disdain caused the sector to calcify. The structure came to be seen by many of Turkey’s largest companies as a way to off load unwanted real estate, at high...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. International banks have traditionally gained exposure to Turkey through one year trade finance related loans to Turkish baks. But over the last year, direct lending to Turkish corporates and Turkish projects have increased dramatically. According to Estel Gurdogan, head of financial institutions at TSKB in Istanbul, total loan volume pre-crisis was about US$30bn, but during 2008 and 2009 this volume fell by about 60%. But now volumes are coming back to the levels they were in 2007...

To view the digital version of this report, please click here. At 10.30am on Friday April 8, Akfen Holding’s consortium won the bid for Istanbul’s ferry privatisation. The sale of IDO was broadcast on live TV and Akfen’s success was the latest chapter in a remarkable 18 months of activity. No other Turkish company has been as busy in all areas of international finance. Akfen’s story shows the difficulties these companies can face, but also the huge benefits they can derive from embracing the international markets. “We have now used every type...