Category: Business

Turkey Sits Proud at EBRD Meeting

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Friday with a simple yet familiar message for states of emerging Europe, Eurasia and North Africa: try to be more like Turkey.

By Joe Parkinson

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2013 annual meeting and business forum opening session on May 10, 2013, in Istanbul. AFP/Getty Images/Ozan Kose

ISTANBUL—It was the perfect platform for a well-honed pitch.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Friday with a simple yet familiar message for states of emerging Europe, Eurasia and North Africa: try to be more like Turkey.

Sandwiched between struggling economies of the euro zone and political turbulence in the Middle East, many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are trapped in a cycle of recession or stagnation, with limited ability to attract investment.

That challenge was spotlighted as the EBRD on Friday slashed its 2013 growth forecast for the economies of emerging Europe and North Africa from 3.1% in January to just 2.2%, calling for urgent structural reforms to kick start growth.

Turkey, by contrast, has seen four years of sustained growth, which has transformed the economy into an investment magnet. The Istanbul stock market has this year repeatedly surged to fresh record highs. Benchmark two-year bonds last week dipped under 5% for the first time ever, signaling growing investor confidence in the stability of Turkey’s growth path.

The EBRD’s chief economist Erik Berglof on Friday hailed Turkey for “successfully navigating a soft landing” in 2012 and forecast Turkish growth to pick up to 3.7% this year on the back of rising domestic demand spurred by looser monetary policy. EBRD officials also expect Turkey to win its second investment grade credit rating in the next few months, likely offering a further boon for the economy.

For Prime Minister Erdogan and Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, visionaries of the Justice and Development Party which has won three successive elections in Turkey, Ankara’s emergence from a 2001 banking crisis that skittled many of the country’s top lenders offered an example to other countries still mired in crisis.

“In this challenging time Turkey is a success story – I would like to share with you the secrets of our success, ” Mr. Erdogan said before reeling off a laundry list of reforms to Turkey’s financial sector and real economy that has helped spur growth without upending stability.

Mr. Babacan was more succinct: “People ask how does Turkey achieve these results?… We say that it’s all about stability. If you have confidence and stability, it’s easy, ” he said.

To be sure, even as Ankara has dramatically outperformed many of its regional peers, not everything in the economy is rosy. This year, Turkey has struggled to attract foreign investment for new infrastructure projects, and in 2012 the economy missed an official growth forecast of 4%, clocking in an expansion of just 2.2%, its lowest level since 2009.

Turkey also faces some clear structural problems: a chronic current account deficit financed by fickle international fund managers, and a near-total dependence on imported energy that can stoke both external financing needs and inflation if oil and gas prices rise.

Ankara’s own experience of recovering from its 2001 crisis by borrowing 14% of its gross domestic product from the IMF also stands in contrast to the overriding challenge for the EBRD’s countries of operation: how to stimulate growth.

Nonetheless, Turkey’s economy certainly stands out as a bright spot as emerging Europe economies struggle to propel growth amid continually slack demand for exports in the euro zone. Meanwhile, the development bank’s four new countries of operation — Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia — remain buffeted by political instability and legacy of economic inefficiency.

As booming Istanbul plays hosts to this year’s EBRD meeting, most of the region’s laggard economies would gladly trade Turkey’s problems for their own.

via Turkey Sits Proud at EBRD Meeting – Wall Street Journal – WSJ.com.

May 11, 2013
Limak-Led Group Wins Istanbul Airport Deal in Record Auction

Limak-Led Group Wins Istanbul Airport Deal in Record Auction

A consortium led by Limak Holding will build and operate Istanbul’s third airport, aimed at establishing Istanbul as an international flight hub with one of the world’s biggest terminals.

By Emre Peker, Yeliz Candemir, Aysegul Akyarli Guven

ISTANBUL—A Turkish consortium on Friday won a $29 billion tender—the biggest in Turkey’s history—to build and operate one of the world’s largest airports in Istanbul, marking the most concrete sign of the country’s ambition to become a global transit hub.

The group led by Limak Holding AS, a conglomerate with interests ranging from airport operations to construction and tourism, secured the right to run Istanbul’s third airport for 25 years after bidding €22.2 billion ($29.1 billion) plus taxes. The five-company winning consortium, which also includes Cengiz Holding AS, Kolin Insaat, Mapa AS and Kalyon Group, won the tender by nearly doubling its initial €12.7 billion bid.

The consortium’s prize is an airport slated to triple Istanbul’s existing annual capacity to 210 million passengers a year in what would be the world’s second largest international terminal behind Dubai. The price tag totaled almost 3% of Turkey’s gross domestic product and more than triple the $6.55 billion Saudi Oger Group paid to purchase a 55% stake in Turk Telekomunikasyon AS’s 2005 privatization—the government’s largest sale on record until Friday.

Limak Chairman Nihat Ozdemir said after the auction that the investment represented “trust in Turkey’s future growth.” Turkey’s government hailed the news as a vote of confidence in its stewardship of the economy.

“This airport won’t only meet Turkey’s needs, but also be a hub for all the traffic from west to east, east to west, from Africa to Europe,” Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said in televised comments after the auction.

The Turkish government’s effort to build a global transit hub in Istanbul forms a key part in a broader strategy to triple the country’s GDP to $2 trillion in the next decade and join the ranks of the world’s top-10 economies.

Emblematic of the effort to boost air transport capability is the dramatic expansion of national carrier Turkish Airlines. Since the ruling Justice and Development Party swept to power in 2002, the carrier’s passenger volume has nearly quadrupled. Turkish Airlines this year ordered some 95 planes from Boeing Co. and another 117 jets from Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., in an effort to double its fleet and expand its global footprint.

Despite Turkey’s obvious ambition, some analysts pointed to funding concerns given the price tag for Friday’s tender, which also includes development costs of €10 billion and about €4 billion in taxes at a rate of 18%.

Turkey has in recent years canceled or delayed about $10 billion worth of tenders as local consortiums proved incapable of financing their winning bids. Most recently, a joint venture by three members of the airport consortium—Cengiz, Limak and Kolin—asked the authorities to delay finalizing a $1.96 billion electricity-grid purchase they concluded in December.

Mehmet Cengiz, chairman of Cengiz Holding, said Friday that the consortium would have no difficulty financing the new airport.

“We have arranged loans on all fronts and plan to use both international financing and domestic funding,” Mr. Cengiz said in an interview. He said the breakdown of local and foreign financing wasn’t yet set as the consortium was still evaluating borrowing costs. The group won’t use credit to meet the 20% equity-stake requirement for the airport project.

On Friday, shares of TAV Airports Holding Co., Turkey’s top airport operator, fell 7.8%. The Istanbul-based company, which sold a 38% stake to France’s Aeroports de Paris for $874 million last year, dropped out after bidding at just over €22 billion.

Mak-Yol Insaat, one of two other participants, quit following an offer of €4 billion. Another also-ran was a partnership formed by Turkey’s IC Ibrahim Cecen Yatirim Holding AS and German airport operator Fraport AG, which had the highest opening bid at €20 billion. Fraport, which also runs the Antalya airport with IC Holding on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, saw its shares slide by about 2% after losing the tender.

via Limak-Led Group Wins Istanbul Airport Deal in Record Auction – Wall Street Journal – WSJ.com.

May 4, 2013
Gold Rush From Dubai to Turkey Saps Supply as Premiums Jump

A salesperson shows gold bangles to a customer at the Dwarkadas Chandumal Jewellers store in the Zaveri Bazaar area of Mumbai, India.

Surging demand for gold from Dubai to Istanbul has pushed physical premiums in the region to levels not seen in years as the biggest price slump in three decades lures consumers, according to MKS (Switzerland) SA.

Premiums paid by wholesalers and bulk buyers in Dubai to secure a 1 kilogram bar of bullion are being quoted between $6 an ounce and $9 an ounce over the London cash price, said Frederic Panizzutti, global head of marketing and sales at the Swiss-based bullion refiner. That compares with about 50 cents before the rout, Panizzutti, also chief executive officer of MKS Precious Metals DMCC, said in an interview from Dubai.

Gold fell to the lowest in more than two years this month on speculation that the global economy is recovering, unleashing a purchasing frenzy among coin and jewelry buyers from China to the U.S. Consumer demand for jewelry, bars and coins inTurkey and the Middle East represented about 9.4 percent of the global total last year, according to the World Gold Council. Bars have been cleared from display in the souks, according to Gerry Schubert, head of precious metals at Emirates NBD PJSC.

“Physical demand has been tremendous in a way I haven’t seen for a number of years,” said Jeffrey Rhodes, global head of precious metals at INTL FCStone Inc., who’s worked in the industry for more than three decades. “The price collapse prompted a physical gold rush and the evidence of the extent of that is the prolonged period of high premiums that we’ve seen. Reports from the gold souks are that business is good,” Rhodes said from Dubai.

Bear Market

Prices plunged 14 percent in the two sessions to April 15, the most since 1983, and reached a low of $1,321.95 an ounce on April 16. Since then, spot bullion has rebounded 11 percent to $1,469.54 today as the surge in physical demand offset record outflows from exchange-traded products. Gold is still lower in April, heading for the worst monthly loss since December 2011 amid a bear market.

In Turkey, the fourth-biggest gold consumer last year, bullion on the Istanbul Gold Exchange traded at premiums of as much as $25 an ounce over the London spot price, something that hasn’t happened in “a very long time, we’re talking years,” said MKS’s Panizzutti.

“In the gold souk, you see some coins left over, but the investment bars are all gone from the windows,” said Schubert at Dubai-based Emirates NBD, the United Arab Emirates’ second- biggest bank by assets. Domestic retail prices moved to a premium of about $5 an ounce from a small discount before the rout, said Schubert, who has traded the metal since 1979.

Largest Center

Dubai is the largest gold-trading center in the Middle East, according to the Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group, an industry body that includes manufacturers and retailers. Trade was worth about $56 billion in 2011, up from $6 billion in 2003, according to data on the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre website.

Gold jumped 4.2 percent last week, the most in 15 months, as coin demand from mints in the U.S. and Australia to the U.K. soared. The volume for the benchmark contract on the Shanghai Gold Exchange surged to a record last week, while premiums to secure supplies in Indiajumped to five times the level before the slump. China and India are the world’s largest buyers.

Consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong are paying premiums of about $3 an ounce, compared with about $2 just after the rout, according to Ng Cheng Thye, head of precious metals at Standard Merchant Bank (Asia) Ltd.

‘More Patient’

“Physical metal is still not available,” Ng said by phone from Singapore. “The Chinese are on holiday these few days and at this level, the market might slow down a bit on the demand side. People are a little bit more patient now compared with two weeks ago, where everybody was rushing for physical metal.”

Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Ltd. said that jewelry sales at its 44 shops in Hong Kong more than doubled in the two weeks ended April 27 from a year ago. In China, financial markets are closed through May 1.

“It’s not just a Middle East story, it’s all across the globe,” said Panizzutti. “The fact that premiums are so high, it means that no one is making enough. We are producing 24 hours a day.”

May 2, 2013
Viewpoint: Gulf states hold key to Turkey’s grand vision

By Georges Elhedery and Selim Kervanci

Middle East countries in a position to help out Ankara

Turkey has a $350bn investment list. On top of the list, is a new airport in Istanbul, at an estimated $9bn, and $106bn to upgrade the Turkish electricity sector

Ankara, however, has comparatively little in the way of domestic resources to fund these ambitions by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the modern Turkish Republic.

But there is an abundant source of funds close to home in the form of the assets held by the Gulf states.

These countries’ cumulative current account surpluses over the past few years (2000-2012) reached $1,800bn. There are of course many calls on these funds but in Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait City and Abu Dhabi there are ample pools of assets looking for a profitable home.

Infrastructure is one of the sectors targeted by the sovereign wealth funds. In the case of Turkey, they generally see added benefits of being able to benefit from growth and potential credit re-rating.

via Viewpoint: Gulf states hold key to Turkey’s grand vision – FT.com.

May 2, 2013
Turkish Airlines bans bright lipstick on hostesses

Turkish Airlines has banned air hostesses from wearing brightly-coloured lipsticks such as red or pink, a move which has sparked fierce debate as the government is accused of trying to Islamise the country, according to reports.

In recent months the booming airline – which is 49 percent state-owned – has also stopped serving alcohol on internal flights Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Agence France-Presse in Ankara

3:30PM BST 01 May 2013

Numerous women posted pictures of themselves wearing bright red lipstick on social media websites to protest at the measure, part of a new aesthetics code for stewardesses working for Turkey’s main airline.

The lipstick ban is the latest in a string of conservative measures adopted by the airline, which have sparked the ire of fiercely secular Turks.

“This measure is an act of perversion. How else could you describe it?” said Gursel Tekin, vice-president of the main opposition party CHP.

Turkish Airlines defended the ban, saying in a statement yesterday that “simple make-up, immaculate and in pastel colours, is preferred for staff working in the service sector”.

In recent months the booming airline – which is 49 percent state-owned – has also stopped serving alcohol on internal flights.

In February, images of proposed new uniforms for flight attendants bringing in ankle-length dresses and Ottoman-style fez caps were criticised as too conservative. The skirts of Turkish Airlines stewardesses once came in far above the knee.

However the more conservative new uniforms have not been adopted.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyin Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, in power for over a decade, is often accused of creeping efforts to coerce the country to be more conservative and pious.

Turkey is a fiercely secular state, despite being a majority Muslim country. Under Mr Erdogan’s rule headscarves – banned in public institutions – have become more visible in public places and alcohol bans are more widespread.

Edited at telegraph.co.uk by Sarah Titterton

May 2, 2013
Olympics Features: Istanbul 2020: World Bank confirms strength of Turkish economy

LAURA WALDEN / Sports Features Communications

(SFC) A senior official at the World Bank praised Turkey’s economic performance in these past years giving a boost to the nation’s economic outlook and reinforcing the bid.

Martin Raiser, the country director for Turkey at the World Bank, spoke in Washington this past week affirming that Turkey has been performing wonderfully since the latest global economic crisis. He also feels that that the country is likely to reach high-income status within the next three years because of its young demographic.

Their desire to host the Games would set off a huge rise in mass sport participation, particularly among the Turkey’s 31 million people under the age of 25. This vision emerges from a stellar decade of economic history.

Raiser said, “Social inclusion is increasing in Turkey mainly thanks to the spread of economic activities.” He was speaking at an event organized by the Turkish Industry & Business Association (TÜSİAD), Koç University and the Economic Research Foundation (ERF) where he highlighted that the significant investment in infrastructure and public services that has been made has energised Turkey’s substantial economic growth.

Speaking from the Sport For All Congress, Hasan Arat, Chairman of Istanbul 2020, was thrilled at the news. He said,”This is a welcome endorsement from the World Bank in that it supports the message that we are explaining to the Olympic Movement.

“Turkey’s financial strength ensures that Istanbul 2020 is in a position to deliver a technically excellent Games which will realise the potential of Turkey and the surrounding region’s young people. The government is investing $2.5 billion in 693 sports facilities and 25 new stadia as well as $500 million annually into sports participation and development programmes, regardless of whether Istanbul are awarded the Games.

“This investment will engage the entire nation, making sport more accessible to Turkey’s 31 million young people under the age of 25.”

Ugur Erdener, IOC member and President of the NOC of Turkey, noted on the investment in facilities, “The huge investment into sports infrastructure will benefit all levels of sport participation in Turkey. The National Olympic Training Centre, which is being built this year regardless of the bid outcome, will serve as both an elite and recreational sport resource.

“The Olympic City will serve 600,000 people as a “live, work, play” community. These world-class facilities will create a generation of opportunities for the region’s young people to participate in sport from grass roots, through to elite level.”

Istanbul is bidding against Tokyo and Madrid to host the summer Games and the final decision will be taken on September 7th at the IOC session in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

via Olympics Features: Istanbul 2020: World Bank confirms strength of Turkish economy.

April 30, 2013