Tag: Turkısh banking industry.

  • Turkey’s Ziraat says working to set up Islamic bank

    Turkey’s Ziraat says working to set up Islamic bank

    (Reuters) – Ziraat Bank, Turkey’s largest state-run lender, is planning an Islamic bank, known locally as a “participation bank”, and would consider going into partnership with a foreign lender, General Manager Huseyin Aydin.

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    After proceeding slowly with the development of Islamic finance for years, partly because of the sensitivities of its secular political system, Turkey has recently begun to tap the sector, issuing its first sovereign sukuk last September.

    The development of Turkey’s sukuk, or Islamic bond, market is of interest to countries around the world, since Turkey’s fast-growing economy could become a major issuer of Islamic debt and influence trends throughout the industry.

    “Ziraat Bank is working towards establishing a participation bank, we have set some people to work on this subject. This bank will be established as a separate bank,” Aydin said late on Friday.

    The bank had so far not received a partnership request for the venture but that they would be open to talks.

    “If there is a request we will consider it. However, there cannot be a situation where we are not in control. It would have to be a system where we are the majority shareholder, a system that we can direct,” he said.

    Because of political sensitivities, and to adhere to local law, Islamic banks in Turkey describe themselves as participation banks and sukuk are described as participation certificates, a reference to the fact that instead of paying investors interest, they pay returns on a pool of assets.

    There are currently four participation banks operating in Turkey: Albaraka Turk, Bank Asya, Kuveyt Turk and Turkiye Finans. Kuveyt Turk, a unit of Kuwait Finance House, issued the country’s first sukuk in 2010.

    After Turkey’s landmark September issue of a $1.5 billion sukuk, which drew massive demand, it has now issued three sukuk, two of them lira-denominated totalling 3.14 billion lira ($ 1.75 billion) and one dollar-denominated worth $ 1.5 billion.

    Turkey is now also working on new regulations to allow wider use of Islamic bonds, which could see sukuk issues employed by the government and corporations for project finance and infrastructure development.

    Ziraat is Turkey’s largest state-run bank and its second- largest by assets after Is Bank, with 162.9 billion lira ($90 billion) in assets. Its net profit rose 26 percent last year to 2.65 billion lira.

    General Manager Aydin told Reuters in February the bank was being prepared for a possible IPO although there was no final decision on the timing of a sale. Sources close to the matter have said up to a quarter of the bank could be sold next year in what Ziraat hopes will be one of Turkey’s biggest stock market listings. (Reporting by Ebru Tuncay; Writing by Jonathon Burch; editing by Ron Askew)

    via Turkey’s Ziraat says working to set up Islamic bank | Reuters.

  • UBS Plans Istanbul Hires as Turkey Growth Trumps Global Cuts

    UBS Plans Istanbul Hires as Turkey Growth Trumps Global Cuts

    UBS AG (UBSN), the Swiss bank cutting about 10,000 jobs, is planning to expand in Turkey as the nation’s economic growth boosts demand for assets.

    “We’re working on hiring more for our investment banking team in Turkey,” Gonca Gursoy Artunkal, the bank’s chief executive officer in Turkey, said yesterday in an interview in Istanbul, without giving more details on the expansion. “We’re also waiting for detailed capital markets regulations to be published to see whether to start asset management operations.”

    UBS’s expansion plans for Turkey follow the Swiss bank’s announcement in October that it will cut about 16 percent of its workforce in the next three years and slim down investment banking. Tougher regulation and slower markets have left investment banks worldwide jostling for market share, with companies looking to shrink unprofitable areas.

    Turkey has attracted investors such as Russia’s OAO Sberbank (SBER) and Diageo Plc (DGE) in the past two years, seeking to enter an almost $800 billion economy set to grow about 4 percent this year. Ernst & Young LLP said in January it expects mergers and acquisitions in Turkey to rise to $25 billion in 2013 from $23.2 billion last year.

    Investment Banking

    UBS, which employs 30 people in Turkey, offers investment banking services such as debt capital markets, equities trading and research, as well as having a corporate advisory team focusing on M&A work for smaller transactions.

    “Things have been quite busy and we’re enjoying a good momentum,” Artunkal said. “We’re trying to evaluate the potential in the space and looking to see what additional value we can bring clients here in Turkey.”

    UBS last month reported its second straight quarterly loss after booking a fine for trying to rig global interest rates and costs tied to job cuts. CEO Sergio Ermotti is exiting most debt- trading businesses to concentrate on money management and boost returns for shareholders. The company announced plans to raise its dividend by 50 percent to 15 centimes ($0.16) a share for 2012 and repurchase as much as 5 billion francs of debt to lower funding costs.

    Turkey’s market regulator is considering draft regulation on the structure of asset management companies, including introducing 10 million liras ($5.49 million) minimum of capital.

    via UBS Plans Istanbul Hires as Turkey Growth Trumps Global Cuts – Bloomberg.

  • Saxo Bank launches new office in Istanbul

    Saxo Bank launches new office in Istanbul

    Denmark-based online trading and investment firm Saxo Bank has opened its latest overseas branch in Istanbul, following the purchase of 89.54% of Deger Menkul Degerler in May 2012.

    Apart from supporting the existing institutional client base, the new office will help customers by providing access to international financial markets.

    Egemen Kaya has been appointed as the head of the new office, who was previously working as head of emerging markets and precious metals desk at Saxo Bank’s headquarters in Denmark.

    Kaya said the low inflation and interest rates in Turkey, presents an attractive scenario for Turkish investors to invest in various international market products including Forex, international stocks, futures and options.

    “By having a presence in this young and buoyant market, Saxo Bank and its Turkish subsidiary Saxo Capital Markets Menkul Degerler are now positioned well to facilitate these demands,” Kaya added.

    Saxo Capital Markets Menkul Degerler provides retail investors access to 20,000 financial instruments, including over 50 forex pairs, 8,300 CFD, Single Stock CFD on over 21 global stock exchanges, CFD ETFs, Stock Indices CFDs, Futures, Contracts Options among others.

    Established in 1992 and headquartered in Copenhagen, the Saxo Bank Group trades in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Australia.

    via Saxo Bank launches new office in Istanbul – Banking Business Review.

  • Emirates NBD eyes Turkey for opportunities

    Emirates NBD eyes Turkey for opportunities

    Gregor Hunter

    Dec 6, 2011

    financeEmirates NBD is planning an overhaul of its customer service practices as it attempts to drive up the size of its consumer banking business.

    The biggest bank in the UAE by assets, Emirates NBD is aiming to generate 50 per cent of group revenues from its retail banking operations, said Rick Pudner, the bank’s chief executive.

    “We’re going to go back to basics and tweak our efficiencies,” he said. “The key priority is making the bank hum. It’s working well, but we need to fine-tune and make it more efficient.”

    The bank’s international expansion would focus on organic growth, particularly in Saudi Arabia and India, though Mr Pudner signalled that the bank was seeking takeover targets in the Middle East as European banks look to sell assets in the region.

    “Turkey is important to us, and we continue to search the region for what we think would be a good fit,” he said.

    The bank is also preparing for its first sukuk launch, which Mr Pudner said was due in December.

    Mr Pudner was speaking on the sidelines of a conference to announce a tie-up between IBM and Tanfeeth, the bank’s newly launched “shared services” subsidiary, which will seek efficiencies and cost savings across the entirety of the bank’s operations. IBM will provide services and training as Tanfeeth establishes itself in the region.

    “Banks come under pressure sometimes in terms of quality of service,” Mr Pudner said. “This is a real key initiative for me as a banker to make sure my customer service improves significantly over the next few years. We’re going to invest what we need to invest to make this work.”

    Emirates NBD has invested more than Dh100m in Tanfeeth, the first company of its kind in the Middle East.

    Consumer lending accounted for Dh2.8bn of the bank’s operating income in the third quarter, 38.4 per cent of the bank’s total. However, this business is the most costly division in terms of general and administrative expenses of any of Emirates NBD’s business.

    ghunter@thenational.ae

    via Emirates NBD eyes Turkey for opportunities – The National.

  • Turkey is an ancient trade hub with a bright future

    Turkey is an ancient trade hub with a bright future

    Turkey has traditionally been known as the gateway to the East and is typically coupled with the Middle East and Africa in the geographic divisions of many large companies. Yet its economy – the 15th largest in the world – sends half of all its exports to Europe.

    By Andrew Cave

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    Turkey is increasingly attractive to small and medium-sized businesses looking to explore growth opportunities Photo: AP

    This is a situation that Turkey, and Istanbul in particular, has been used to for centuries, given the nation’s place on the ancient trade routes.

    With Turkey opening up more to Western investment in recent years, however, the nation is increasingly attractive to small and medium-sized businesses looking to explore growth opportunities as part of the next stage of their strategy.

    This is why Turkey has been selected as the second destination in the series of trade visits being organised by HSBC Bank as part of its Business Thinking initiative.

    The programme, run in partnership with Telegraph Media Group, aimed at finding and rewarding innovative and different ways of approaching business, is offering 18 winning companies up to £90m of loans, which come with a financial reward of up to £200,000.

    In addition, dozens of people from shortlisted companies are to be flown to networking events in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

    They will meet some of the foremost management thinkers in their business fields. The Turkey visit will take place in mid-September.

    Turkey is a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20 group of major economies.

    It had a growth rate averaging an annual 6.8pc from 2002 to 2007, making the nation one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

    The country also has an unusually young demographic profile, with more than half of its 72m people aged below 30 and a median age of 27.

    Murat Ulgen, HSBC’s chief economist for Central and Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, is predicting gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6pc this year and around 4.5pc in 2011, following a sharp contraction of 4.7pc in 2009.

    The bank is also forecasting Turkish exports of about $115bn (£74bn) this year, a stable central bank interest rate of 7pc and a range of between 7.5pc and 8pc for the annual rate of inflation by the end of 2010.

    The unemployment rate is running at 12pc, while Turkey’s budget deficit is between 4pc and 4.5pc of GDP and its total external debt stock works out at about 40pc of GDP.

    By the end of this year, Mr Ulgen is forecasting, the size of the Turkish economy will be $720bn, representing per capita income of about $10,000. The current exchange rate is 2.38 Turkish lira to the pound.

    In past decades, Turkey has been a byword for high inflation and an unstable economy but reforms were enacted following the economic crisis of 2001 and a new currency, the Turkish new lira (later renamed once again as the Turkish lira) was launched in 2005.

    Inflation was driven down to single digits, while the unemployment rate also fell and investor confidence grew.

    A series of large privatisations, the stability fostered by the start of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, strong and stable growth, and structural changes in the banking, retail, and telecommunications sectors have all contributed to a rise in foreign investment.

    Turkish tourism has also experienced rapid growth in the past 20 years, and constitutes an important part of the economy. In 2008, there were nearly 31m visitors to the country, contributing $22bn to Turkey’s revenues.

    Mr Ulgen believes that such developments meant that Turkey suffered less than many other nations in the recent global financial crisis.

    “During the global recession, we were lucky,” he says, “because we had a very strong banking industry.

    “Unlike a lot of Europe and the US, the Turkish banking system was very strong, with high capital adequacy ratios, which was a big advantage. Turkey’s recovery has been very impressive.”

    Turkey has a large and growing automotive industry, which produced 1.1m cars in 2008, ranking as the sixth largest producer in Europe, one place behind Britain, and the 15th largest producer in the world.

    It produces more cars than Italy and is also one of the world’s leading ship-building nations, ranking fourth behind China, South Korea and Japan in the numbers of ships ordered and also fourth behind Italy, the US and Canada in the number of ordered super-yachts.

    Turkish brands such as BEKO and Vestel are among the largest producers of consumer electronics and home appliances in Europe.

    Mr Ulgen says the best sectors for British companies to target for exports are durable and white goods manufacturers, the automotive industry, the energy sector and infrastructure projects.

    At present, he says, Turkey’s domestic economy is much stronger than its export economy so UK companies may be better advised to seek sales in Turkey itself, rather than look to use the country as a hub for exporting elsewhere.

    Virma Sokmen, HSBC’s head of corporate banking in Turkey, adds that because of its young population, Turkey is dynamic and enterprising.

    However, she warns that the most successful Western companies in the country have been those, such as Unilever, Cadbury and Reckitt Benckiser, that have adapted their offerings and business practices to take account of Turkey’s very strong and individual culture.

    “Turkey has a very collective and common culture,” she says. “Turkish people value global brands but they also want to see respect for Turkish culture.

    “They will want to spend time with you and perhaps your shareholders before committing to business. They are warm and hospitable people and will want to meet over lunch or dinner and get to know who they are dealing with.”

    Turkey is also quite a highly-regulated environment and Ms Sokmen says that some foreign firms coming into Turkey like to do so through a partner or advisers.

    “You do need to build relationships,” she says, “but there are lots of business opportunities in Turkey for companies that take the time and make the effort to adapt.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7945717/Turkey-is-an-ancient-trade-hub-with-a-bright-future.html, 14 Aug 2010