Barış Öney
Globalturk Capital brought the Turkish Minister of Finance, Mehmet Simsek, and the world’s leading private equity funds together for the first time at an event titled “Private Equity Investments in Turkey and Environs”.
More than 30 senior representatives of the world’s important Private Equity Funds attended the “Private Equity Investments in Turkey and Environs” event that was recently hosted by Globalturk Capital. The investments and exits of Private Equity Funds today and in the days ahead for Turkey and Environs were the main topics discussed during the event that was organized jointly by Globalturk Capital and the world’s largest Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) in Washington DC, USA. With the valuable participation and speech of the Turkish Minister of Finance, Mehmet Simsek, the current state of the Turkish economy, the long term positive dynamics of Turkey and their potential long term impacts on Private Equity Funds were discussed.
Simsek attracted particular attention to the strong fiscal policy of Turkey and the fact that the demographics, education, and the research & development operations will differentiate Turkey positively from other emerging markets in the long term. He also underlined that the harmony and stability that will be achieved after the elections will enable the realization of ready-to-apply structural reforms, and thus it is better for investors with long term perspectives like private equity funds to evaluate Turkey from this perspective.
FROM 320 MILLION DOLLARS TO 17 BILLION DOLLARS
The event began with the speech of Baris Oney, Founder and Managing Partner of Globalturk Capital, about today’s developing Private Equity Funds market and the current cooperation projects. Baris Oney stated that the Private Equity Investments began 20 years ago with a small foreign fund, reaching only to some 36 investments having a total estimated value of approximately 320 million dollars in the first ten-year period from 1995 to 2005, and grew into more than 200 investments exceeding total of 17 billion dollars in the last decade, adding that it is more than 10% of the 150 billion USD FDI that entered into Turkey within the same period. Oney reminded that it is time for 150 companies to exit from their investments within the next two years, and underlined that if these exits can be performed successfully, more than the current number of Private Equity Funds will invest in Turkey.
PRIVATE EQUITY FUNDS YET TO DISCOVER SMEs
In the panel moderated by Baris Oney, the investments of Private Equity Funds in Turkey, their expected state after the elections and their futures were discussed with the participation of Baris Gen (IFC Regional Director), Mehmet Ilkin (EBRD Senior Manager), Selcuk Yorgancioglu (Abraaj Capital Turkey and Central Asia President and Partner), Anthony Stalker (Partner of CCL and ADM Capital Europe LLP) and Bert van der Vaart (SEAF Founder and CEO). Together with the large investments, the opinions of such funds about SMEs and how to invest in them were also discussed. The investors that participated in the panel expressed their confidence in Turkey’s macro dynamics in the long term and their expectations about the future of the respective investments. They mentioned that Turkey has significant values and a dynamic outward-looking business community investing beyond borders, and the companies managed in this mentality will continue to grow, adding that the Private Equity Funds that invest in these companies will have much greater returns.
DEIK’s President Omer Cihad Vardan talked about the role DEIK plays in assisting the foreign economic relations of the Turkish private sector together with 127 business councils, the establishment story of Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK), and the Turkish-American Council that was founded as the first business council of Turkey 30 years ago. Vardan additionally emphasized that they as DEIK would do their best to support Private Equity investors with their very capacity.
INVESTORS WATCH TURKEY CAREFULLY
The detailed presentation of Randy Mitchell, Vice President of EMPEA, about Turkey and Private Equity Funds summarized the current state of Private Equity Investments and fund raisings. Mitchell focused on the state of Private Equity Funds in Turkey, the investor sensitivity, the trends shaping the markets, the latest funds and the local fund improvement methods, and reminded that even though the interest in Turkey is still behind the other emerging markets, this may rapidly change with the improvement of macro environments. Mitchell also underlined the fact that Turkey is followed closely as an important member of the top ten emerging markets.
One other important guest of the Private Equity Investments in Turkey and Environs was Nevzat Aydin, who came to the headlines with the sale of Yemeksepeti.com to Delivery Hero for 589 million dollars. Aydin shared his success story with the guests, and also talked about the benefits of Private Equity Funds and company mergers both for Turkey and the individuals.
