Turkish Competition Board Publishes 2016 M&A Activity Report

Turkey's Competition Authority ("Authority") recently published a report on mergers and acquisitions examined by the Competition Board ("Board") during 2016 ("Report"). The Report outlines transaction numbers and values, as well as investor countries and industry sectors. The Authority considered 209 transactions in 2016, with 22% involving foreign parties investing approximately TRY 18.9 billion into Turkish companies. The total reported transaction value increased 252% in 2016, relative to 2015. The Report showed electricity as the most active sector for M&A activity in 2016.

Mergers or acquisitions can reduce or restrict competition in a market by creating a dominant position or strengthening an existing dominant position. These transactions are prohibited by Article 7 of the Law on the Protection of Competition No. 4054 ("Law"). Transactions which meet certain criteria and thresholds must be notified to the Board to be legally valid.

Notable points in the Report include:

• 209 mergers and acquisitions were reported to the Authority in 2016.
• The total transaction value in 2016 was TRY 1,595,572,480,940. This is a 252% increase from 2015 (TRY 452,560,160,618).
• In 91 transactions, the target companies (including company subject to transfer and joint venture companies) or joint ventures are incorporated in Turkey.
• 47 of the 2016 transactions (22%) involved foreign parties investing in Turkish companies. Most notably, these investments were from:
  
  
  • The Netherlands (nine).
  • Germany (six).
  • England (four).
  • Japan (four).
• Foreign parties invested approximately TRY 18.9 billion in takeover transactions of Turkish companies, equating to a 200% increase on 2015 (TRY 6.3 billion).
• Electricity was the largest industry sector for 2016 transactions (except privatizations).
• The highest valued transactions were in the field of monetary intermediary activities (except privatizations).
• Nine privatization processes were evaluated in 2016. Privatizations mostly occurred in the electricity sector.
• It took an average of 15 days after the final notification for the Authority to finalize its consideration of transactions during 2016.

Please see this link for the full text of the Report, published on the Authority's website on 12 April 2017 (only available in Turkish).

Information first published in the MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

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