Several UAE-Turkey deals are back on the front burner

Deals involving heavy investment between Turkey and the UAE are once again being reviewed with several of them beginning to materialise, said a senior executive of Turkish firm Ata Invest, an investment banking and capital market advisory group.

"A lot of deals were put on hold due to the global financial crisis; not because they were bad opportunities but because people were expecting the worst. We are seeing that changing now. People are thinking they may be reaching towards the end of the crisis," said Ata Invest Dubai Chairman Hakan Ferhatoglu.

"So we are seeing a lot of deals, especially from Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, being more seriously examined again. More transactions have started to take place," said Ferhatoglu, who is also the Finance Committee Chairman of Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board and an Executive Committee Member of the UAE-Turkey Business Council.

Turkey-UAE trade has increased to about $9 billion (Dh33bn) while it was much lower in the past five years or so. "On trade side, it has already picked up, while on investment side, it is picking up and is estimated to be between $1.5bn and $3bn. Turkey has expressed its interest to invest about $40bn in the UAE in next five years." Sectors such as food, healthcare, agriculture, energy and logistics have been attracting high interest from UAE investors. "We expect more investments in real estate; energy would potentially top the list."

Among the sectors in Turkey where UAE investors can seek opportunities include energy, retail, food and logistics. He said with a large proportion of young population and skilled human resource, Turkey presented attractive opportunities in terms of investment.

"For people to invest in Turkey, finding the right partner is very important. Once they have that, they can even go to third parties with those partners, even back to the GCC. That's one of our mandates; we have seen that idea being welcomed here as well." He said new companies from Turkey too were keen on setting up their businesses here and not merely forging joint ventures. "What I am proposing is new businesses. It would replace some of the exits."

With only around 5,000 Turks working in the UAE, there is a huge potential that lay untapped on this front, he added.

Ferhatoglu said his firm sees family owned businesses emerging as important players in the region and is keen on tapping them. "We want to increase our relations with family owned firms. As they become more transparent and as corporate governance increases, we think they would be important players."

Ata Invest focuses on sourcing investments from private equity funds, financial institutions, sovereign funds, new entities created under sovereign funds and family owned businesses.

Regarding fund flows, he said 2009 is an "extraordinary year and a growth of 25-30 per cent was expected". However, a lot was dependent on recovery of economies.

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