Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF) (

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

: ''Türkiye Varlık Fonu, TVF'') is a $33 billion

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

founded in August 2016 owned by Government of Turkey. The fund is operated with "Strategic Investment Plan", which was approved by the Cabinet. Companies and assets formerly owned by state institutions, shall be eligible to be transferred to the fund and sub-funds shall be able to created if viewed appropriate.

History

TWF is founded officially on 26 August 2016. According to the law published, chairman, CEO and board members were appointed by the Prime Minister. In November 2016, PM

Binali Yıldırım Binali Yıldırım (; born 20 December 1955) is a Turkish politician who served as the 27th and last Prime Minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He was Leader of the Justice and Devel ...

appointed board members and Mehmet Bostan as CEO. On 6 February 2017, it was announced that Ziraat Bankası,

Turkish Airlines Turkish Airlines (Turkish: ''Türk Hava Yolları'') is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey. , it operates scheduled services to 340 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the largest mainline carrier in the wo ...

, TÜRKSAT, BOTAŞ, PTT, BİST, TPAO, Türk Telekom (6,68%), Eti Maden,

Çaykur Çaykur is a Turkish state owned tea producing company. Their portfolio includes ice tea, green tea, organic and black tea Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized tha ...

have been handed over to TWF. In addition to the companies, 3 billion liras worth Defense Industry Support Fund (Turkish: ''Savunma Sanayii Destekleme Fonu'') were transferred to TWF for 3 months. The fund also has several lands in

Antalya Antalya () is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Ae ...

Aydın Aydın ( ''EYE-din''; ; formerly named ''Güzelhisar'', Ancient and Modern Greek: Τράλλεις /''Tralleis''/) is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of ...

İstanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...

Isparta Isparta is a city in western Turkey and the capital of Isparta Province. The city's population was 222,556 in 2010 and its elevation is 1035 m. It is known as the "City of Roses". Isparta is well-connected to other parts of Turkey via roads. Ant ...

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

, Kayseri and

Muğla Muğla () is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the District of Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a dist ...

, which were previously owned by Treasury of Turkey. Treasury stakes of

(49,12%) and Halkbank (51,11%) were also handed over to the fund.

2018 changes

After

2017 Turkish constitutional referendum A constitutional referendum was held in Turkey on 16 April 2017 on whether to approve 18 proposed amendments to the Turkish constitution that were brought forward by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movemen ...

, Prime Ministry of Turkey was abolished. In accordance with this change, TWF law is changed to allow President of Turkey became the chairman of TWF and appointment of CEO, Vice Chairman and board members by the President. On 12 September, President Erdoğan became chairman of the fund. He also appointed Zafer Sonmez, formerly of Malaysia's government investment vehicle Khazanah Nasional from September 2012 until September 2018, as Senior Vice President & Head. Erdoğan's son-in-law

Berat Albayrak Berat Albayrak ( born 21 February 1978) is a Turkish businessman and former politician, and the son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is a former CEO of Çalık Holding. He was a member of parliament from Istanbul in the 25th, ...

was named as his deputy on the board of the sovereign wealth fund.

2020 changes

In April 2020, TWF Financial Investments was founded with previously government owned shares insurance companies. TWF acquired non-government shares and merger was completed in September 2020; “Türkiye Sigorta” was founded with merging Güneş Sigorta, Halk Sigorta, Ziraat Sigorta and “Türkiye Hayat ve Emeklilik” was founded with merging Vakıf Emeklilik ve Hayat, Halk Hayat ve Emeklilik and Ziraat Hayat ve Emeklilik. On 18 June 2020, the TWF agreed to acquire 26.2% shares of

Turkcell Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. (''lit. Turkcell Communication Services'') (, ) is the leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, based in Istanbul. The company has 39,3 million subscribers as of September 2021. In 2015, the company's number of ...

from Telia and Çukurova Holding for US$1,801 million, including US$196 million to Telia and US$1,605 million loan from Ziraat Bank. On 22 September 2020 following amendments to Articles of Association, the fund has gained the right to appoint five of the nine members of the board of Turkcell. On 26 November 2020, TWF announced selling %10 stakes of Borsa Istanbul to QIA which was previously acquired from EBRD The next day, Vice Chairman Albayrak announced his resignation, whom previously resigned from Ministry of Finance. On 10 March 2022, TWF acquired controlling stakes of Türk Telekom for 1.65B USD in order to resolve handover issues in 2026.

Management

Companies

Licenses: * Millî Piyango (for 49 years) *

Jockey Club of Turkey Jockey Club of Turkey (Turkish: ''Türkiye Jokey Kulübü'', TJK) was founded on 2 November 1950. The club was recognized as public benefit society by the resolution of Council of Ministers in 1953 and named as Jockey club of Turkey by adding the ...

(for 49 years)

References

{{authority control Sovereign wealth funds Government-owned companies of Turkey