Major Turkish Investors in New York State

Jeans-wear companies Mavi and LTB, menswear brand Sarar, high-end diamond company Gilan, general contracting and construction management services company Kiska, and the latest investor, Turkey's largest wire manufacturing company Sarkuysan chose New York State as the place in which to invest.

Godiva Chocolatier, the Belgian chocolate maker, was sold by Campbell Soup Company to Yildiz Holding, a firm based in Istanbul that owns Ülker Group. The acquisition is significant in that for the first time a Turkish company has acquired an international brand leader.

GSM-based mobile communication company Turkcell’s shares have been traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) since July 11, 2000 and it is the first and only Turkish company ever to be listed on NYSE. Turkish investors investing in New York State are listed below:

GODIVA TRANSFORMS INTO A TURKISH DELIGHT
Godiva Chocolatier, the Belgian chocolate maker, was sold by Campbell Soup Company to Yildiz Holding, a firm based in Istanbul that owns Ülker Group, a big Turkish conglomerate with a major business in food, manufacturing cookies and candy as well as chocolate.
On Dec. 20, 2007 Ülker signed an agreement with the Campbell Soup Company to purchase Godiva for $850 million “with all its international participations, brands, facilities, trade secrets and patents.” The acquisition is significant in that for the first time a Turkish company has acquired an international brand leader.

The Godiva chocolate company was first established in Belgium in 1926, and was purchased by the Campbell Soup Company in 1974. Today, the firm manufactures chocolate in Belgium and the US, and sells its products all over the world through its own boutiques, franchised shops, posh department stores and over the internet.

Ulker Group’s facilities in Egypt and Pakistan started production in the first quarter of 2008. Thus, the company is operational in eight foreign countries. There are now over 270 retail locations as well as over 2000 wholesale doors. Godiva's world headquarters are located in midtown Manhattan.

TURKCELL: FIRST AND ONLY TURKISH COMPANY ON THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
GSM-based mobile communication started in Turkey when Turkcell began its operations in February 1994. As of December 31, 2008, Turkcell has made 7.7 billion US dollars worth of investment in Turkey, which doesn't include the price of the license. Again as of December 31, 2008, with its 37 million subscribers, Turkcell is not only the leading operator in Turkey, but is also the third biggest GSM operator in Europe in terms of subscriber numbers.

Turkcell’s shares have been traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) since July 11, 2000 and it is the first and only Turkish company ever to be listed on NYSE.
The company has investments in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and also in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Ukraine and Belarus. In August 2008, Turkcell announced that it had completed the acquisition of an 80% stake in Belarusian Telecommunications Network (BEST).

MAVI JEANS: THE BEST-KNOWN TURKISH BRAND IN THE US
Founded in Istanbul in 1991, Mavi Jeans designs a full collection of jeans-wear, for young women and men. After producing garments and jeans for many international brands, Sait Akarlilar, the President of Mavi Jeans, decided to develop his own brand- Mavi, which means blue in Turkish.

Today, Mavi is sold in more than 50 countries. The company has more than 3,000 employees and 3,220 selling points all over the world. Mavi has about 7 million in sales, more than half in exports - 90 percent of this is in the U.S., Canada and Germany.

In the future, the company is planning to open more stores - they currently have 85 in Turkey and have opened flagship shops in Vancouver and New York. Next, it will be Frankfurt and Berlin with other important cities of the world to follow.

Mavi Jeans opened the doors to its 3,500-square-foot flagship near Union Square in New York City, its first store in the U.S., in March 2003. The company also has a store in Vancouver, Canada. Mavi’s operations are run by Ersin Akarlilar.

GILAN: FIRST TURKISH STORE ON FIFTH AVENUE
Gilan started operations in the USA in 2001, they opened their first private jewelry salon in December, 2003 on Fifth Avenue, in the prestigious Crown Building.
Gilan gained experience in the American market through this boutique and in September 2005 took yet another step and opened a flagship store on Fifth Avenue and became neighbors with such world famous brands as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Prada. The store is located between Bergdorf Goodman Men's and Louis Vuitton.
Gilan has succeeding in attracting popular artists and well-known people from high society to wear its products. Pop singer Christian Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Morrison, Selma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Drew Barrymore, Melissa George, and Lucy Liu are among celebrities who prefer Gilan.

Gilan opened its first store in the Covered Bazaar in Bursa, Turkey in 1981, run by the brothers Ferhan and Muharrem Geylan. In 1986, the brothers went to Istanbul to grow their business.  There, they built a large workshop. During this time, they started to design and manufacture jewelry for celebrity families and artists. The Geylan brothers, after establishing a design brand with Levent Piskiner in 1993, opened their first store in Istanbul’s Akmerkez shopping mall and started to sell the jewelry they designed under the name "Gilan”.

SARAR: A BRAVE INVESTMENT AFTER SEP. 11
Sarar USA was founded just after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Sarar greeted its first customers in Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, a favorite New York area shopping center in 2001.
Sarar Group is one of the leading menswear brands in the world with more than a hundred stores around the world.

The company has become the worldwide manufacturer of major global fashion labels such as Hugo Boss, Burberry's, Banana Republic and many more. In an effort to extend SARAR's retail fashion distribution network, Sarar USA established their flagship boutique, located in the heart of New York City at 375 Madison Avenue at 46th Street in The Roosevelt Hotel in January 2008. Beside its Madison Avenue flagship and Woodbury Common Premium Outlets stores, Sarar has stores in Paramus (New Jersey), Las Vegas, Dallas and Chicago.

KISKA THE BIGGEST TURKISH CONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT IN NEW YORK
KiSKA-USA is a subsidiary of KISKA Construction Corporation, an international company based in Ankara, Turkey.  KiSKA USA is a general contracting and construction management services company.  Its diverse areas of experience and expertise range from infrastructure to high-rise construction. Since its establishment in 1987, KiSKA-USA, with a near billion dollar volume, has developed a strong presence in the construction of shafts and tunnels for water and transportation systems, as well as the rehabilitation and reconstruction of bridges, highway viaducts, and industrial facilities.
KiSKA Developers, Inc., KiSKA Property Marketing & Management, Inc. and Wildflower Estates Developers, Inc. offer a range of property development and real estate services in addition to KiSKA-USA's general contracting and construction management capabilities.
The Marmara, Inc., another subsidiary of KiSKA, owns and operates The Marmara Manhattan, a luxury extended-stay hotel. The Marmara-Manhattan, at 301 East 94th Street, opened its doors in April 1998, with 102 luxurious, extended-stay apartments. The Marmara hotel chain has nine hotels in Turkey and one in Manhattan. Oguz Gursel is the founder of Kiska Group and Alp Baysal has  full capacity to run Kiska Construction  operations in USA.

SARK USA WIRES ALBANY TO ISTANBUL
Sark Wire Corp., a subsidiary of the Sarkuysan Group of Companies in Istanbul, Turkey's largest wire manufacturing company, opened its first U.S. operation in a former printing plant in Albany's west end. The company, which makes electrical copper products, is opening a $10 million processing plant in Albany, N.Y.  
Sark Wire Corp. bought a vacant building at 120 Industrial Park Road near Everett Road in Albany and will renovate it for the processing plant. The plant will initially employ 30 people when full operations begin, which is expected to be in the second half of 2009. The plant will be located in an Empire Zone, which means the company will be eligible for state tax credits and incentives in exchange for creating jobs. Sark has been exporting products to the U.S. and other countries for more than 25 years and has a distribution facility in Saddle Brook, N.J.
Sarkuysan was founded in 1972. The publicly owned company employs more than 750 people in Turkey and has gross annual sales in excess of $1.5 billion. Tolga Kaan Isik operates Sark USA operation in the U.S. (The Business Review, September 10, 2008. (Albany)

LTB JEANS: DENIM LOVERS PREFER
Manufacturing 17,000,000 pieces of clothing annually on an area of 150,000 square meters, Çak Group has grown into a major force in the Turkish textile market. Little Big denim, also known as LTB, is very well known for the high quality of its jeans.
The Istanbul-based company, which originally began as a textile maker, opened its denim flagship store in 2003 on Broadway in SoHo, New York City.

The brand has rapidly developed a cult-like following of denim lovers ranging across media figures, celebrities, and retailers.  Jennifer Garner, Katherine Heigl, Hayden Panettiere, Eva Longoria, Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz, Hilary Duff, Lauren Conrad, Ornella Mutti, Anna Falchi, Pamela Camassa, Giada  de Blank,  and Valon Behramihave all been donning their LTBs. LTB has over 100 shops and 4000 selling points worldwide, excluding its home country. Ugur Altintas is in charge of LTB operation in the U.S.

13 TURKISH COMPANIES IN FORBES MAGAZINE’S LIST
13 Turkish companies placed among the 2,000 biggest companies in the world in Forbes Magazine’s list. Forbes Magazine listed the 2,000 largest companies from 62 countries according to their income, profit, assets and market values.
U.S. General Electric ranked the top in the list, followed by Royal Dutch Shell and Toyota Motor. Turkish companies in the list and their market values are as follows;
- 331st Is Bankasi (5.31 bln USD)
- 410th Koc Group (2.51 bln USD)
- 427th Akbank (6.91 bln USD)
- 452nd Garanti Bankasi (5.11 bln USD)
- 527th Sabanci Group (2.60 bln USD)
- 714th Turkcell (10.93 bln USD)
- 741st Turk Telekom (8.02 bln USD)
- 779th Halk Bankasi (2.63 bln USD)
- 850th Vakiflar Bankasi (1.59 bln USD)
- 942nd Enka (4.37 bln USD)
- 1262nd Erdemir (2.24 bln USD)
- 1340th Dogan Holding (0.73 bln USD)
- 1879th Anadolu Efes (2.86 bln USD)