A Kuwait-based investment company will use Türkiye as a "financial hub" for its investments in the region, a senior executive said Monday.
NCM Investment Companies Group aims to expand both physically and geographically in Türkiye, Naser al-Marri, its founder and vice chairperson told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Addressing the opening of the group’s new branch in Türkiye’s western city of Izmir, al-Marri said the company has not registered any loss since it started investing in the country and that they did "their homework" on the market.
He also stated they are going to open offices both in Ankara and Antalya shortly, while they are planning to double the number of employees by the end of the year. The company is set to continue expanding on a product basis as well, he added.
Stating that they aim to be among the top 10 brokerage houses in the Turkish market, he said they kept the focus on balanced growth in Türkiye.
"Türkiye's geographical location and size presents a very important opportunity for us to use it as a financial hub," al-Marri said.
"We have a chance to use Türkiye as a financial hub for our new products to enter the European market. If you want to enter the European market, you enter the Turkish market first. We think that we can also use Türkiye’s relations with the EU. Especially considering that 5 million-6 million Turkish citizens live in Europe, it’s easy to understand that there is significant potential here. Therefore, we also use our offices in Türkiye to reach these citizens abroad," he noted.
‘Broad market’
Addressing the press, al-Marri pointed out that they have developed business relations, and built up confidence and that they aim to strengthen their development in Türkiye by collaborating with major organizations now.
"This may be in the form of cooperation with one of the major mobile operators. We can cooperate with important schools and insurance companies. Our cooperation with Ege University is just the beginning. We aim to grow healthily by collaborating with important institutions," he added.
Emphasizing that Türkiye is a country with an ideal location, a well-developed transportation system and a broad labor force, al-Marri said it was easy to join any sector in Türkiye since the market is very broad.
NCM Investment Group’s founder also noted that as a group they have offices in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Azerbaijan and Montenegro and that recently they opened a new office in Belgrade, Serbia.
"The management of all these offices will be done from our office in Türkiye. In other words, it will be controlled from here and this is the way how we see Türkiye. We have also started to transfer young professionals from Türkiye to our offices abroad. They work in Kuwait and Dubai at the time," he said.
Noting that the Turkish market never lost its functionality, even in a period of the coronavirus pandemic when many Asian and European companies left, and NCM Investment decided to continue to operate, al-Marri called for other investors from abroad to be quick and invest in Türkiye while it’s the right time.