Tag: Koc Holding

  • 7 firms pledge $3.2 million for Istanbul Olympics bid

    7 firms pledge $3.2 million for Istanbul Olympics bid

    Ankara (Turkey), March 10 (IANS) Seven of Turkey’s leading conglomerates have pledged to contribute to the bid to bring the 2020 Summer Olympics to the Turkish city of Istanbul, with sponsorship deals worth $3.2 million.

    An earlier meeting in Berlin in January resulted in seven firms, including Turkish Airlines, Koc Holding, Ulker, Dogus Group, Digiturk, Sabanci Holding and Turkcell, pledging investments as high as $20 million to sponsor the games, reports Xinhua.

    Sports Minister Suat Kilic has announced the deals alongside representatives from the seven companies in Istanbul, saying, “Before our sponsors became involved in the process, we felt all alone. When they decided to provide their support, we realized we were one big family.”

    The minister said the seven firms will put up $3.2 million in sponsorships, an amount which he said represented “50 percent of the burden”.

    Istanbul is competing in the final three with Madrid and Tokyo for the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. This is the fifth bid Turkey has made in the last six selections. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will elect the host city in a vote in September in Buenos Aires.

    via 7 firms pledge $3.2 million for Istanbul Olympics bid.

  • New York’s Metropolitan Museum names two galleries after Koç family

    New York’s Metropolitan Museum names two galleries after Koç family

    New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art named two of its 15 renovated galleries in its Islamic Art section after Turkey’s Koç family, the owners of the İstanbul-based Koç Holding, Turkish news agencies reported this week.

    culture

    The Koç family, who own several of Turkey’s biggest corporations, are also known for their efforts in sponsoring major art events and investing in the cultural field through the Koç Foundation. One of the family’s best known enterprises in that field is the Rahmi M. Koç Museum in İstanbul, one of Turkey’s rare industrial museums, dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications. They also run a similarly themed museum in Ankara, the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum.

    More than 1,000 pieces from the Met’s comprehensive collection of Islamic Art return to view in the renovated and expanded suite of 15 galleries. The galleries, re-organized in accordance with geographical area, emphasize the diversity of the Islamic world, over a span of 1,300 years, underscoring the many distinct cultures within its fold, the museum announced on its website, www.metmuseum.org.

    The new Galleries for the Art of the Arab lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia will reopen on Nov. 1 as part of the Met’s permanent installations. Koç Holding Honorary Chairman Rahmi Koç and his sister, Semahat Arsel, the president of the holding’s executive board, were in attendance at a special opening for the galleries earlier this week at the Met.

    Koç told the Anatolia news agency during the opening that he was extremely pleased with the project. “This is a huge step for [the worldwide promotion of] Turkey and one that carries the Koç Foundation to an international platform. Six million people [a year] visit this museum,” he added.

    The Koç galleries, renovated with support from the Koç Foundation, host a rich collection that features various artifacts from the Ottoman period along with historic handcrafts from the era such as carpets and textiles as well as weapons.

    “The opening of these extraordinary new galleries underscores our mission as an encyclopedic museum and provides a unique opportunity to convey the grandeur and complexity of Islamic art and culture at a pivotal moment in world history,” said Thomas P. Campbell, the director of the Metropolitan Museum, in a statement posted on the museum’s website.

    “These 15 new galleries now trace the full course of Islamic civilization, over a span of 14 centuries, from the Middle East to North Africa, Europe, and Central and South Asia,” Campbell added. “This geographic emphasis signals the revised perspective we have on this important collection, recognizing that the monumentality of Islam did not create a single, monolithic artistic expression, but instead connected a vast cultural expanse through centuries of change and influence,” he said.

    via New York’s Metropolitan Museum names two galleries after Koç family.

  • Sir Brian Souter in buy-out of Turkish ferry operator

    Sir Brian Souter in buy-out of Turkish ferry operator

    Stagecoach transport mogul Sir Brian Souter has led a buy-out of Istanbul’s main ferry operator for £528m.

    The sale by the Turkish city’s government includes 52 vessels that transport more than 50 million people each year, across the Bosphorus and around the Sea of Marmaris.

    The sale includes 52 vessels which sail across the Bosphorus and around the Sea of Marmaris
    The sale includes 52 vessels which sail across the Bosphorus and around the Sea of Marmaris

    The chief executive of Stagecoach transport group used his investment company to lead the buyout.

    His investor group has a 30% stake in Istanbul Deniz Otobuslen (IDO) ferries.

    Souter Investments is partnered by Ann Gloag, Sir Brian’s sister and co-founder of Perth-based Stagecoach, Edinburgh financier Sir Angus Grossart and three Turkish-based companies, including the operator of the country’s largest airport.

    The sale, denominated in US dollars at $861m, includes 25 sea buses, 19 fast ferries and 17 conventional ferries.

    There are nine inter-city and five inner-city lines serving 35 piers, with sales last year of £142m.

    ‘New heights’

    Newly-knighted Sir Brian said: “I am confident we will take IDO to new heights of success by improving everything from fast ferry frequency to catering.

    “Our goal is to ensure motorists opt for seabus and ferry transportation, rather than making long and frustrating road journeys in and around the congested Istanbul road network.”

    Souter Investments also owns two urban bus companies and a ferry operator in New Zealand.

    Last week, the investment firm launched a new express coach service between Berlin, Bratislava, Prague and Vienna.

    Souter Investments extend to stakes in yacht-builder Sunseeker International, insurance company esure and the price comparison website gocompare.com.

    Other competitors for the IDO ferry operator included international ferry operator Stena and Turkey’s largest conglomerate, Koc Holding.

    via BBC News – Sir Brian Souter in buy-out of Turkish ferry operator.

  • Apple trying to eliminate Turkish partner, daily claims

    Apple trying to eliminate Turkish partner, daily claims

    ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

    ipadU.S.-based technology giant Apple is looking to break its relations with Bilkom, a local Turkish partner, daily Milliyet reported Friday.

    Apple founded an Istanbul-based company under the name of “Apple Technology,” in May, Milliyet said, adding that the company was managed by Apple Europe.

    The executives of Koç Holding, Bilkom’s parent company, announced that the new company would act in concert with Bilkom, Milliyet said.

    But the fact that iPad, one of Apple’s most prominent recent products, is still not distributed in Turkey raises question on the relations between the two companies, it said.

    The reason for the delay is Apple’s efforts to eliminate Bilkom, the paper said.

    Koç Holding had said the new Apple branch in Turkey would aim to speed up the operations in the fast-growing local market.

    The record-breaking iPad is not officially sold in Turkey despite having been on the market for seven months in other countries.