Category: Business

Invest AD partners in Turkey fund

Asa Fitch

"We're developing a strong long-term interest in Turkey," says Nazem Fawwaz al Kudsi, the chief executive of Invest AD. Sammy Dallal / The National

Invest AD, an investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, is teaming up with a Japanese company to launch a US$100 million (Dh367m) buyout fund focused on Turkey.

The joint venture between Invest AD and Japan’s SBI Holdings will be the second for the two companies after they set up a $100m Africa fund last year. Each party will contribute $50m to the Turkey fund, according to a statement.

“We’re developing a strong long-term interest in Turkey, a strategically important country in the region which has seen robust economic growth in the last 10 years,” said Nazem Fawwaz al Kudsi, the chief executive of Invest AD.

The Abu Dhabi company already has an interest in Turkey through its existing private-equity funds. The company in 2009 bought part of Ekol Logistics, which handles shipments of goods between Turkey and Europe.

Middle East buyout companies have been enamoured of Turkish investments for some years, thanks to Turkey’s steady economic growth and close trade ties with Europe. Abraaj Capital, the region’s biggest private-equity company, has investments there, as do a number of other regional players.

Economic growth in Turkey last year hit 8.2 per cent, according to IMF figures. The IMF estimates growth this year at 4.6 per cent.

For SBI, the partnership will yield access to Invest AD’s experience in the region, said Yoshitaka Kitao, SBI’s chief executive. The companies plan to open an office in Istanbul to run the fund.

“We’re looking to expand SBI Group’s asset management activities across the world through partners with on-the-ground expertise,” Mr Kitao said, adding he had a “strong belief” in Turkey’s economic prospects.

Invest AD and SBI are considering investments in consumer goods, food, retail, services and health care, and may bring outside investors into selected deals.

The launch of the joint fund comes as capital flows from the Gulf into Turkey enjoy an upturn. With uprisings denting investment prospects in such places as Egypt and Tunisia, Middle Eastern investment companies are looking increasingly to Turkey for new investments. Foreign direct investment from the Gulf was expected to rise this year, the Turkish deputy prime minister, Ali Babacan, said in February, after having already “risen considerably”.

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via Invest AD partners in Turkey fund – The National.

May 27, 2011
Bodrum airport increasingly appealing to UK LCCs; easyJet, Jet2.com and Monarch have all added routes recently

Bodrum likes families and families like Bodrum – traffic rose 11% last year to 3.1 million.

Milas-Bodrum airport on Turkey’s south-west coast serves a major tourist resort area during the summer months. Last year, the airport served almost 3.1 million passengers, up almost 11% on the previous year. This made it Turkey’s seventh busiest airport behind both Istanbul airports (Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen), Antalya, Ankara, Izmir and Dalaman. Domestic traffic accounted for 38% of the airport’s total demand in 2010, and this segment grew by 20%. International traffic, which accounted for just over 1.9 million passengers, grew by a more modest 6%. Flights from the UK contributed with 45% of all international passengers (880,000), whereas flights from German airports represented just 5% of the international total (100,000).

Source: DHMI

The airport’s seasonality profile is one of the more extreme in Europe with the airport handling over 600,000 passengers during the peak summer months of July and August, but only 50,000 per month during the winter season from November through to March. This suggests that the region also is a popular destination for Turkish holidaymakers.

The start of London/Stansted-Bodrum services exactly a year ago.

New UK services in 2011 with Jet2.com and Monarch

While UK traffic to Bodrum increased by a modest 3.4% in 2010, this week sees the launch of new scheduled services from Birmingham and London Gatwick operated by Monarch, which complement the airline’s London Luton services that began last May and Manchester services which began earlier this month.

Another UK low-cost airline, Jet2.com, began flights from Manchester last week and is starting seasonal East Midlands and Leeds/Bradford services from the middle of June. easyJet began flights from London Gatwick in April 2009, London Stansted in May 2010, from Liverpool in June 2010, and Bristol in July 2010.

However, while the growing number of services from LCCs is noteworthy, the two biggest airlines serving the UK market remain Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways that provide a predominantly all-inclusive holiday experience including accommodation and transport to and from the airport.

Domestic flights dominated by Istanbul routes

According to OAG data for August, Turkish Airlines and Atlasjet offer over 80 weekly flights to Istanbul Atatürk Airport, while Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines offer a further 36 weekly departures to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport. These two airlines also compete on the route to Ankara. Next month, Pegasus Airlines is starting non-stop flights to Adana, with service operating on Monday, Thursday and Sunday.

The word mausoleum derives from the tomb of King Mausolus which was built at Bodrum in 350 BC and was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was eventually destroyed by earthquakes in 1404 although remnants of the marble four-horse chariot that crowned the roof can be seen in the British Museum (where only a few select Brits ever venture; preferring the unspoilt beaches of Bodrum).

May 26, 2011
‘To save LDCs, remove trade barriers’

Written by David Tash Lumu

Wednesday, 25 May 2011 18:58

East African countries are finalising on plans to have a common market without barriers

East African countries are finalising on plans to have a common market without barriers

Istanbul-Turkey – The international community must employ three strategies—lower trade barriers, revise trade rules and ensure cuts in agricultural subsidies—as tools to lift the world’s poorest nations out of the economic-divide, Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General has said.

Lamy also says that although the contribution of international trade to the development of least development countries (LDCs) is not “questionable”, a lot more work needs to be done.

“When it comes to the contribution of international trade to the performance of the LDCs, the progress is unquestionable: their average growth rate of 7% over the past decade exceeds the world average, and trade accounts for two thirds of that growth,” he said.

“During the same period, LDC trade grew twice as fast as world trade.”

However, the LDCs still account for only 1% of world trade. “In other words, the contribution of international trade to the development of the LDCs remains inadequate,” he said.

Speaking to delegates at the recently concluded Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in Turkey from May 9-13, Lamy said: “Today, the LDCs account for one fifth of all WTO members, and receive close to half of our technical assistance.”

To revamp this “inadequate” contribution of international trade to the development of LDCs, Lamy suggests that the WTO and the international community should use the next 10 years to solve market access problems, minimize trade regulations and “the reduction and elimination of subsidies that are crippling agricultural production in the LDCs, as exemplified by the cotton issue.”

“In the trade regulations area, other decisions of utmost importance for the LDCs are being held up for similar reasons.”

Lamy also wants the international community to unblock trade restrictions by working on market access.

“It is both essential and urgent that we unblock these decisions in favour of the LDCs.”

He called for opening up market access as the entry point of uplifting LDCs.

“Let us begin with market access. Though it may be improving, access for LDC exports free of duty and quantitative restrictions is not always a foregone conclusion at the WTO,” he said.

He also said official development assistance (ODA) in LDC trade capacity building area has grown from $5 billion to $12 billion is a period of ten years.

“We are on the right path: the LDCs’ share in world trade has doubled in the space of 10 years,” he said.

The conference in Istanbul also assessed the results of the 10-year action plan for the LDCs as adopted at the third UN conference on LDCs in Brussels, Belgium, in 2001. Members have now called for more aid as a tool to combat poverty in their 48-page Action Programme resolution issued at the end of the UN conference in Turkey.

“Noting that most of these countries have made considerable efforts to mobilize domestic resources for their development, most of them face a huge financial gap,” the statement reads.

Members at the conference vowed to halve the number of LDCs, which is now 48 countries, and also appealed to donors to up their contribution to aid. The United States of America aid flow to LDCs has increased from $12 billion to $38 billion between 2001 and 2008.

The conference was organized as a way of putting the plight of LDCs on the international agenda so that a workable solution can be formed in order to reduce the continental divide between the developed and least developed.

[email protected] e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

via The Observer – ‘To save LDCs, remove trade barriers’.

May 26, 2011
Peak Games raises $5M for social gaming

May 25, 2011 | Dean Takahashi

Turkish game publisher Peak Games has raised $5 million to make social games for emerging markets.

The deal shows that investors are looking beyond established markets to emerging countries where social games are still catching on. Peak Games, which has more than 10 million monthly active users on Facebook, is targeting its games at Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.

The investment comes from Earlybird Venture Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Munich, Germany.

Sidar Sahin, chief executive of the game company in Istanbul, said in an interview that it hopes to expand its roster of social games into markets such as Brazil and the broader Middle East region.

“We believe the next big Facebook games will come from an emerging market,” Sahin said.

While other companies try a one-size-fits-all approach for international markets, Peak Games focuses on making local versions of games that are culturally relevant to the people in the region. That’s key to getting a higher monetization than normal for an emerging market, said Rina Onur, co-founder and chief strategy officer.

Michael Pachter, analyst for Wedbush Morgan, said Peak Games shows that the social gaming market is a global one and that it may already own a leadership position in markets such as Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.

Sahin founded the company in October, 2010, and it already has 50 employees and 10 games. The company has 10 million monthly active users playing traditional Turkish and Arabic card and board games on Facebook.

Onur said the company’s method is to understand its audience and make games directly for them. She noted that Turkey is the fourth-largest market for Facebook, with more than 28 million users. The number of Facebook users in the broader region grew 78 percent from a year ago.The company says it can reach as many as 56 million Facebook users now and expects that to grow to 250 million by 2015.

Previously, Peak Games raised $2.5 million from Hummingbird Ventures and serial business angels Evren Ucok and Demet Mutlu, bringing its total fundraising to date to $7.5 million in six months.

On a daily basis, 2 million people play the company’s games across five time zones, four continents, and five languages. The titles include Okey, Okey Plus, Poker Star, Komşu Şehir, Komşu Kabile, İkon Kız (FabGirl), Bizim Dünya, Komşu Çiftlik and Petiler. Okey, a card-based game, has more than 4.5 million monthly active users.

The company develops its own games and has also partnered with several leading social game developers in the West, including The Broth and MagnetJoy.

Rivals include Zynga, Disney-Playdom and EA-Playfish, as well regional players such as Brazil-focused firms Mentez and Vostu

via Peak Games raises $5M for social gaming | VentureBeat.

May 26, 2011
Turkey to partner with Sikorsky to export choppers to countries in region

Turkey will become an important hub for producing and exporting choppers in the near future, Ministry of Defense officials told the Anatolia news agency on Wednesday.

Sikorsky’s Blackhawk S-70i model is likely to be the kind of helicopter Turkey and the American aerospace company will export.

Sikorsky’s Blackhawk S-70i model is likely to be the kind of helicopter Turkey and the American aerospace company will export.

The source said that Turkey and American company Sikorsky will produce choppers in Turkey and start exports as soon as possible to third countries. He noted that Turkey aims to acquire know-how in the defense field with this project in order to make the country a potential helicopter production hub.

Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül announced on April 21 that Sikorsky had won a $3.5 billion deal to sell 109 choppers to Turkey. Under the agreement, part of those 109 choppers would be produced in Turkey. According to details Gönül shared with the media at that time, the Sikorsky helicopters to be produced in Turkey would be designed specifically for Turkey’s needs in the 10-ton category, each with a capacity to carry 18 passengers. The choppers will be produced according to a 10-year plan and used for multiple purposes, from defense to firefighting. The state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is the main contracting party for the production of certain parts.

The source mentioned that, besides the agreement to sell helicopters to Turkey, Sikorsky agreed to export at least 200 choppers produced in Turkey to its customers around the world. The official underlined that Turkey had acquired an important opportunity for the transfer of know-how in defense technology from the United States with this agreement. “Soon or later, Turkey will become an important center for producing and exporting these helicopters,” officials said. According to the agreement, local companies in Turkey will produce the transmission, engine, software, avionic and optical systems, flight remote systems and the landing gear of the helicopters.

A leap forward in Turkish defense industry

While opening the country’s defense industry to the world, Turkey has placed greater importance on its national defense industry in the past few years than it has in the history of the republic.

As the infrastructure of its defense sector improved, the country began designing and producing its own defense products using only domestic resources. The 10th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF’11), which was recently held in İstanbul with the participation of 575 domestic and foreign companies from 44 countries, was a recent opportunity to observe the transformation the Turkish defense industry has undergone in the past few years. Turkey introduced a number of firsts in its defense industry at this fair to attract the attention of foreign customers. Turkey’s first domestically built warship, the Heybeliada, Turkey’s first national tank, the Altay, Turkey’s first guided bomb, produced by Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) and developed by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), as well as its first domestically produced rifles were among the products exhibited at IDEF’11.

In other figures that further highlight the increased activity in the Turkish defense industry, defense product manufacturers earned total revenue of $2.73 billion and spent $666 million in research and development activities last year, up from $2.31 billion and $505 million, respectively, in 2009. In February, a Turkish defense company secured a $600 million deal –Turkey’s largest single sale in defense industry exports — in Malaysia.

In line with these developments, international companies have placed the Turkish defense industry on the top of their potential partner countries. The head of French missile and missile systems producer MBDA said in a previous statement they see potential for cooperation with Turkey’s strong defense industry. Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA, told the Anatolia news agency that Turkey’s defense industry has made strategic investments in the recent past and that his company could be involved in more partnerships with companies from Turkey. “We see strong potential in Turkey for cooperation in various fields of the defense industry,” Bouvier said.

via Turkey to partner with Sikorsky to export choppers to countries in region.

May 26, 2011
Global headhunters seek Turkish executives

GÖKHAN KURTARAN

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Representatives from several international headhunter companies say employing Turkish employees is becoming a trend for corporations. Being raised in an emerging market, practical attitudes and ability to adapt to new conditions are the basic advantages of Turkish professionals

Qualified Turkish employees could fill the talent gap in many international companies seeking growth in other emerging markets, said several representatives of Executive Search Worldwide, or INAC, the global headhunter companies’ body.

“Turkey is already the global center of talented, well educated, experienced executives, who respect the cultural values and background of others and can adapt to varying business environments,” said Ali Midillili, founder of MSearch Turkey, a research and consultancy firm, at the “Bridging the Talent Gap,” conference held in Istanbul on Monday.

Some 26 global executive search companies from 35 countries attended the event.

“We have not yet received inquiry for Turkish executives,” said Yvonne Borg, representative of Pro Astri, a Swedish firm. As the interest in emerging markets increase, Turkish experience would be more crucial in international companies, she told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Noting that Turkish economy’s was resilient during the global economic crisis, “Swedish firms aiming to grow in new markets will start seeking for Turkish executives with noteworthy experience,” she said.

“The times that the international companies were managing the business abroad with expatriates are over today,” said Giles Huart, regional consultant of Target, an Austria-based executive search firm.

Underlining the increasing need for local executives in growing markets, Huart told the Daily News that Turkish executives were capable of improving new perspectives on matters. “They are practical in finding innovative solutions to problems that might seem impossible to solve for others,” he said. According to Huart, more international companies will need to employ Turkish executives as Turkey has “big role and presence” in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

Many Dutch firms in the Turkish market highly prefer the local knowledge of the Turkish executives, said Onno Kervers, consul general for the Netherlands in Istanbul. “A remigration is also taking place as many Turks who were born or lived in the Netherlands return to Turkey to work in Dutch companies,” Kervers said. “Global headhunters are ready to take advantage of the qualified Turkish executives.”

“Turks and Germans create unbeatable duos in business,” Norbert Klein, chief executive of Bosch Siemens, told the Daily News. “We are highly encouraging Turkish employees to climb up to higher positions in our company.” According to him, comparatively it was easier to locate Turkish executives in Germany only a few years ago but today the trend has changed and these executives work in Istanbul. “Meanwhile, it is even more difficult to convince German executives to work in Turkey,” said Klein, concluding that the best way to employ Turkish executives is to be based in Turkey.

via Global headhunters seek Turkish executives – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

May 24, 2011