International audit and consultancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) Turkey Corporate Finance Department Head Müşfik Cantekinler said yesterday that Spain is the country that has invested the most in Turkish companies over the past 10 years.

Evaluating the acquisitions, mergers and foreign investments that took place in Turkey over the last 10 years, Cantekinler said Spain was the top investor in Turkey for the decade in terms of the announced transaction value with the impact of BBVA Group's investment in Garanti Bank.

In June last year, Spanish BBVA group purchased 9.95 percent of the shares of Turkey's Garanti Bank for $917 million, increasing its total shares in Garanti to 49.85 percent.

He stated that Spain reached a volume of $9.3 billion with 22 transactions in this period and that the U.S. led the way in numbers with 170 transactions.

Cantekinler noted that in terms of transaction value, the most dynamic sector in Turkey in the last 10 years is energy sector with a volume of $50.7 billion, followed by financial services industry with $23.1 billion.

Turkey has seen a considerable increase of $180 billion in foreign direct investment over the last 15 years.

Although the information sector is small in volume, Cantekinler said it is the most active sector in terms of the number of transactions with 451 transactions, while other sectors with the largest number of transactions are the energy and food and beverage sectors.

Stressing that Turkey remained significantly below its potential in mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of this year, Cantekinler stated that this year, as in the previous years, the information sector stood out in the number of transactions, adding that the interest in the food and beverage sector has also increased. "We estimate for the remainder of 2018, total transaction volume will be in the $10 billion to $15 billion range, depending on the expected private sector and privatization transactions. We expect mobility to increase in energy, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing sectors," Cantekinler said.