ROUND TABLE

Cash in Hand

As Turkish investors gain sophistication, the tools at their disposal for alternative investments are growing in number.

GÜRMAN TEVFİK

TAX BREAKS

If you make an investment of 10% of your wage or a maximum amount limited to the monthly minimum wage, you don’t pay any income tax on this amount. Income tax rates range from 15% to 35%. This means that whenever you make an investment, depending on your tax bracket, you can get a tax break.

THE NEED TO SAVE

The need for private pensions is really emerging, and people will soon learn about their value. Most investors have a mother or father who retired young, but they know they will never get that opportunity, and so they save.

NEW ARTICLES

I expect that under the new Capital Markets Law there will be a few articles concerning financial investment advice. This is a very important area to address, because otherwise managing people’s money is not carried out in the right way.

GÖKÇE KABATEPE

TOP THREE

Although it has not been easy to continue growing in the other countries of the region because of the global economic crisis, Turkey has been showing some of the strongest growth prospects in the world. Turkey was globally ranked in the top three fastest growing markets in recent years.

OPPORTUNITY HERE

There is a lot of potential in pharmaceuticals. It is a large, fragmented sector with many local players. The top 10 players in the market make up 50% of the market. About half of those top 10 players are local Turkish companies.

FOOTHOLD

Companies have grown to a size that is significant enough for foreign investors to tap into. That was not the case in the past, when there were a lot of small companies that the large corporate world outside of Turkey was not interested in. If you want to grow in the region, it’s important to have a foothold in Turkey.

PAUL DE KROON

HAVE TO BE HERE

Turkey is a very important strategic growth market with attractive potential. As a global bank, you simply have to be in Turkey—given its role as regional base, its favorable demographics, and strong banking sector.

PRODUCT LIST

Our successful activities have mostly involved large corporate clients—both Turkish and multinational—as well as working with the top domestic banks. As for products, we are focused to meet client needs, combining debt solutions, risk management tools, and transaction services, which include cash and trade as well as supply-chain support.

DYNAMISM

Many banks have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to obtain a banking license to establish a meaningful presence in Turkey and capture a piece of this impressive growth story. Considering the international banks that have become active in the last 10 years, the dynamism of the market is very clear.

MURAT GÜLKAN

BEST IN THE GAME

We are the best performing hedge fund in Turkey. We are restricted in our means of advertising that fact. We can’t advertise en masse and can’t quote any numbers, but we are the best performing fund in Turkey. Our main concern is the restrictions we have in getting our voice heard.

INVESTMENT AREAS

We concentrate almost exclusively on the public markets. We don’t do private equity, for example. We do trade over-the-counter products, typically derivatives that have underlyings in the public market. The Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), depending on how you look at it, is very large and diverse, and yet concentrated at the same time.

REGULATIONS

The regulations for protecting investors here are very strong and they tend to err on the side of caution, which is a result of the legacy of this country. One of the consequences is that an asset management company is not allowed to set up or establish a fund.