Category: Turkiye

Former Zorlu Holding lawyers Pinar Aksakal Aydin and Ece Kok Sen have left the Turkish company to go into private practice, joining with Murat Kececiler to form Kececiler & Partners in Istanbul.

According to Pinar Aydin, the firm focuses on “energy law, project finance, M&As, public and/or private partnerships, litigation, banking and finance and sports law,” and Aydin says that she and her colleagues intend to add more lawyers and trainees soon. 

Kececiler — the son of a famous former Turkish minister — has been practicing since 2005 as the Kececiler Law Firm. Pinar Aksakal Aydin informs CEE Legal Matters that Kececiler “has intense litigation, insurance, labour, corporate and commercial law and M&A experience,” while she Ece Kok Sen have “a corporate background … and [are] experienced on factoring and corporate commercial law issues.”

In joining Kececiler, Aydin, who led the 11-person legal team at Zorlu Energy and reported directly to Zorlu Holding’s Head of Legal, returns to private practice, where she spent the first two years of her career (in 2007 with the Salih Zeki Bayten Law Firm and in 2008 with Eryurekli & Fidan). She joined Zorlu Holding in February 2009, and – with the exception of a brief period at Avea Iletisim Hizmetleri in 2012 — has been there since. She explained to CEE Legal Matters that, “The main reason for me to make this move is my willingness to be on the field. After a long period of in house counsel experience, I felt like I was making no progress in terms of my career objectives and I had the sense that I should take a private practice path to be on the field instead of backstage. While I was thinking of going solo to realize my desire, thanks to Ece I met with Murat who was in private practice and had run an office for about ten years. After our meeting we decided to combine our experiences in different areas by cofounding a partnership.”

Ece Sen began her career with four years as a Compliance Officer-MLRO and Senior Lawyer with ING Faktoring A.S before moving over to Zorlu Holding in early 2014.

White & Case has confirmed that it has concluded its formal relationship with the Cakmak Avukatlik Burosu in Ankara and, after 31 years, now no longer has an official presence in Turkey’s capital.

White & Case opened its office in Ankara in 1985, in the process famously becoming the first international firm with a base in Turkey. It became associated with the Cakmak firm in 1993. 

White & Case Partner Asli Basgoz, in Istanbul, confirmed that “the relationship with the Ankara office has changed,” calling it “less organic” — though she emphasized that Cakmak continues to operate normally, independently of its former international counterpart. Zeynep Cakmak, who was the Managing Partner at Cakmak from April 1994 to September 2015, when she moved to Istanbul a year ago to lead the Turkish firm associated with White & Case in that city (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 21, 2015), describes the new relationship between her former firm and White & Case as “a best friends alliance” — a term now also found on the White & Case website. 

Both Basgoz and Zeynep insist the change “has had no functional impact on the clients.”

Paksoy has advised the Turkish subsidiary of Metalsa, part of the Mexican Proeza Group, which is engaged in truck and automotive body and chassis parts, on the sale of its manufacturing plant in Aksaray to its customer Mercedes-Benz Turkey.  

The firm’s team was led by Partner Togan Turan, supported by Senior Associates Serdar Ildirar and Burak Kepkep. Mercedes-Benz did not retain external counsel on the matter.

The Esin Attorney Partnership, a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International, and Baker & McKenzie’s Paris office have represented Gama Enerji A.S. (Gama Enerji) and its subsidiary Kremna Enerji Uretim ve Ticaret A.S. (Kremna), on a USD 132 million secured senior acquisition finance facility extended to it by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the EBRD, and IFC for the acquisition of the Karacaoren 1 and 2 hydroelectric power plants from the Turkish Privatization Administration (TPA). White & Case and its Turkish arm, the Cakmak Gokce law firm, advised the ICBC, EBRD, the IFC, and other parallel lenders on the privatization, which will be conducted through a Transfer-of-Operating-Rights method. 

The Esin Attorney Partnership describes the deal as representing “one of the Turkish market’s most significant privatizations this year,” and claims that it “represents a renewed interest in privatizations of power plants in Turkey.”

Kremna will finance the acquisition of the power plants through the facility and equity injection. It also announced that it will renovate and streamline them.

Remarking on the matter, Esin Attorney Partnership Partner Muhsin Keskin commented that, “we are very proud to be acting on the privatization of Karacaoren power plants. The ongoing liberalization of the Electricity Market continues as demonstrated by the privatization of the state-owned power plants with a total installed capacity of 78 MW. The interest of the EBRD and IFC, although not surprising, shows these institutions’ commitment to enriching the liberalized power market, while the ICBC’s interest signals a new era for Turkish investors to seek financing from it and its current Turkish subsidiary. The deal structure involved complex facility and security documentation, which we have successfully completed thanks to our strong local team and our global reach.”

Keskin led the Esin Attorney Partnership team, which also consisted of Baker & McKenzie lawyer Nicholas Macheras in Paris and Esin Attorney Partnership lawyers Berk Cin, Berkay Ozludil, Gul Incesulu, and Serenay Cinki in Istanbul.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify that White & Case did not advise the TPA. In addition, after it was published, White & Case informed CEE Legal Matters that its team had been led by Partner Sebastian Buss, while the Cakmak-Gokce team was led by Partner Guniz Gokce and Senior Associate Ates Turnaoglu.

Calling itself “a new player in the Turkish TMT legal market,” a new boutique — Yazicioglu Attorneys at Law — has begun to serve clients in Istanbul.

An announcement distributed by the new firm the firm describes it as having a strong focus on Technology, Media, and Telecommunications, and reports that “it also has a solid expertise in several areas of law including Corporate/Commercial, M&A, Dispute Resolution, Real estate, Data Protection, and Consumer Law.”

Bora Yazicioglu, who founded the new boutique, began his career at the Yarsuvat & Yarsuvat law firm before joining Denton Wilde Sapte (now Dentons) in 2006, then moving as a Partner to the Gokce Attorney Partnership in 2010.

Turunc has advised Taxim Capital on its acquisition of a 40% stake in the Turkish casual dining chain Big Chefs from current shareholders Gamze Cizreli and Saruhan Tan, each of whom had their 50% shares in the company diluted. The Pelister Atayilmaz Enkur Law Office (PAE) advised the sellers on the deal.

The acquisition is the first for Taxim Capital after the recent closing of a new, EUR 105 million fund, which is expected to be increased to EUR 200 million within the next year.

Turunc describes Big Chefs as “a well-known and respected brand in the casual dining sector in Turkey, with international operations in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.” The company has  36 branches, over  2,000 employees, and expects 2016 revenue of over 200 million Turkish liras (over EUR 60 million). It was founded in 2007 by Gamze Cizreli, with private investor Saruhan Tan coming on board at a later point. Turunc reports that Gamze Cizreli has said that Big Chefs will use the funds to expand internationally, and that the company plans to open 85 new branches by 2020 (with 24 of them outside Turkey).

The Turunc team was led by Partner Kerem Turunc and included Esin Camlibel, Grace Maral Burnett, Didem Bengisu, Gozde Kıran, Naz Esen, and Beste Yildizili.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published PAE informed CEE Legal Matters that its transaction team on the deal consisted of Kerim Pelister, Gokhan Enkur, Ela Sencoban, and Pelin Aydogdu.

Image Source: bigchefs.com.tr

Paksoy has advised Klockner Pentaplast on its acquisition of Farmamak from Gozde Girisim, which is owned by Yildiz Holding. The Akin Law Office advised Yildiz on the deal.

Klockner Pentaplast, which Paksoy describes as “a world-leading producer of rigid films,” signed a share purchase agreement on September 6, 2016 to acquire Farmamak, another rigid film producer. Going forward, Farmamak, which reported sales of EUR 47 million, will operate as a subsidiary within the Klockner Pentaplast Group. 

The Paksoy team was led by Partner Togan Turan, supposed by Senior Associates Nihan Bacanak and Burak Kepkep and Associate Zeynep Toma.

The Akin team was led by Managing Partner Umit Akin.

Ugur Ates has become the new Chief Legal Counsel at Kurum Holding, which he joined as Legal Counsel just in January of this year.

According to Ates, “I have been working for Kurum Group for eight months and I was promoted to the position of Chief Legal Counsel in June, 2016 due to my performance in the last six months. Under this title, I am now responsible for managing the legal team of the group, which consists of 8 attorneys in total (1 in Turkey, 2 in Albania, and 5 in Kosovo) and also supervising the external law firms.” 

Ates joined Kurum Holding from the Serap Zuvin Law Offices, which he rejoined in August of 2015 after also working there from December 2009 to February 2013. He also spent a year and a half as a Senior Lawyer at Digiturk and a year as an Senior Associate with the Aksan Law Firm. He graduated from the Yeditepe University and obtained his LL.M. from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Bezen & Partners has advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in its TRY 70 million (EUR 21 million) investment in YDA Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret’s four year bond issuance — Turkey’s longest tenor corporate bond.

The senior unsecured local currency bond is part of a TRY 250 million (EUR 74 million) issuance formed of two tranches of equal size, with maturities of two and four years respectively. It was the first issuance under YDA’s TRY 500 million (EUR 148 million) bond program.

The Turkish industrial conglomerate YDA is raising the bond with the backing of the EBRD to finance a state-of-the-art hospital in the central Anatolian city of Konya, as well as to refinance part of its short-term debt. Overall, according to Bezen & Partners, “the bank’s participation in this transaction is expected to assist in increasing the average tenor of bond issuances in the corporate bond market while also attracting a wider group of international investors to Turkey.”

The Bezen & Partners team was led by Senior Partner Yesim Bezen and included Partner Banu Aslan and Associate Zeynep Ozkan.

Bezen & Partners reported that it did not have details about counsel for YDA on the deal.

Bezen & Partners, working alongside international counsel, Watson Farley & Williams has advised China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Limited (CALC), the largest independent operating aircraft lessor in China, has closed its first Japanese Operating Lease with a Call Option (JOLCO) financing in relation to two new Airbus A320 delivered to Pegasus Airlines in June. Pegasus Airlines — Turkey’s leading low cost airline — will be CALC’s first customer in Europe.

According to Bezen & Partners, “this transaction is the first of its kind where a JOLCO has been used in the financing of equity on an operating lessor for operating leases to a Turkish airline. The transaction was the result of many months of structuring work combining experience and skills of many different parties.”