Turkish companies will attend the first major investors' meeting of 2019 in New York. Under the organization of Austrian Raiffeisen Centrobank, the mutual funds managing $3 trillion in total, will hear about the investment opportunities first hand from Turkish companies, including Vakıfbank, Koç Holding, Yapı Kredi and Mavi, according to a report by Turkish daily Hürriyet.
Raiffeisen Centrobank, which stands out as one of Austria's largest investment banks, will bring together Turkey's major companies with investors in New York on Jan. 17-18. During the "Turkish Days in New York" summit, more than 15 Turkish companies, including Garanti Bank, Akbank, Koç Holding, Anadolu Group, Şişecam and BİM, with a total market value of about $30 billion will meet about 30 American funds managing a total of $3 trillion in assets. The event aims for the companies and investors to come together, understand each other better and evaluate the investment opportunities first hand. Among the 30 American funds are world giants such as Morgan Stanley, Moon Capital, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Some 20 percent of the funds managed by these companies, whose assets exceed $3 trillion, are positioned in developing countries like Turkey.
"We see many Turkish companies have solid foundations, and we are doing our best to convey these stories to the investors in the best way possible," Özgür Güyüldar, head of equity sales and sales & trading at Raiffeisen Centrobank, which offers investment banking services in Turkey, said. "For this reason, we are pleased to bring together the companies and the investors on such a platform."
Güyüldar pointed out that since the normalization in the Turkish economy will take some time, the international investors' perception toward Turkey may recover in a longer period. "Of course, this is not only valid in Turkey. These situations may occur in all the emerging countries exposed to currency shocks from time to time," he continued. "At this point, Turkey's previous successful experiences have convinced investors about Turkey's ability to manage such fluctuations in the market. We have full confidence in Turkey's ability to cope with such temporary fluctuations after managing to build its economy on strong macro grounds with a prudent policy set and structural reforms implemented for the past 16 years. We are confident in saying that the current valuations of Turkish companies have created very important opportunities for investors."
The companies participating in the event include Garanti Bank, Akbank, Vakıfbank, Yapı Kredi Bank, BİM, Industrial Development Bank of Turkey, Koç Holding, Anadolu Group, MLPCare, Şişecam, Pegasus Airlines, Mavi, Doğuş Auto, Yataş Group, Tat Gıda and Lokman Hekim.
In a statement to Anadolu Agency (AA), Denizbank General Manager Hakan Ateş said Turkey's assets have significant potential to draw investors' attention in 2019 with attractive pricing, adding that inflation, projected to go into decline as of the second half of the year, may create advantages in long-term Turkish bonds.
"Turkish stocks traded at a discount of 40 percent compared to their peers may be included as selective. Investors who want to keep their risk perception low can evaluate their savings by thinking in the long term with the available deposit interest rates," Ateş said. "Those who consider evaluating their foreign currency assets may place our mutual funds investing in Turkish eurobonds in their portfolios. In mutual funds, we have a wide range of options to suit every customer profile, ranging from sukuk to fixed-income securities, from foreign exchange to stock, from commodity to free funds and special fund set-up. We believe that mutual funds managed by professionals will be a good alternative to diversify portfolios."