A total of 139 mergers and acquisitions were made in Turkey in the first half of 2015 and the total volume of these announced transactions was realized at $3.1 billion, according to data released from Ernst & Young, a firm that services the fields of independent auditing, consultancy, corporate finance and tax. The value of 53 transactions out of 139 was announced while financial information about 86 transactions was not shared. Whereas Turkish investors constituted $1.7 billion of these transactions, foreign investors made transactions valued at $1.4 billion in the period of January-June.

When the previous years were examined, Turkish investors made transactions valued at $16.5 billion in 2010, $5.1 billion in 2011, $11.5 billion in 2012, $10.4 billion in 2013 and $13.1 billion in 2014. Foreign investors, on the other hand, made transactions valued at $9.9 billion in 2010, $6.4 billion in 2011, $11.7 billion in 2012, $3.3 billion in 2013 and $4.6 billion in 2014. In the first half of this year, Turkish investors made 87 and foreign investors made 52 transactions. Looking at the sectorial distribution of mergers and acquisitions, the energy sector topped the list with $1.25 billion. This was followed by the information sector with $631 million, retail sector with $528 million, telecommunication sector with $328 million, manufacture sector with $102 million and media sector with $72 million. The highest number of transactions was in the information sector with 35 transactions. It was followed by the food and beverages sector with 19, the manufacturing and financial services with 17, retail sector with 12 and energy sector with 11 transactions.

Private sector transactions constituted an important part of the total volume with 137 transactions at $2.4 billion. While the number of transactions made in private capital funds was 27, their total value was realized at $363 million. The top three transactions having the largest volume were Soma B Thermal Power Plant and Immovables, Yemeksepeti and Osmangazi Elektrik Dağıtım and Osmangazi Elektrik Perakende, respectively. In private sector transactions, Boyner Group, Avea and Kiler drew attention alongside Yemeksepeti.

EY Corporate Finance Department Director Müşfik Cantekinler said the total volume of mergers and acquisitions made in the first half of 2015 was around $6 billion when the value of unannounced transactions was taken into consideration.

Emphasizing that the half-year figures were behind compared to the previous year, which was around $22 billion including the value of unannounced transactions, Cantekinler said public-funded privatizations had played an important role in last year's performance.