American fund SEAF allies with local firm

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Barış Öney (R), founding and managing partner of Globalturk, and Bert Van Der Vaart, executive chairman of SEAF, shake hands after a press event.

The U.S.-based Small Enterprise Assistance Fund (SEAF) has partnered with Globalturk Capital, a local mergers and acquisition consultancy firm, to found a $75 million fund for feeding small and medium enterprises (SMEs), daily Milliyet reported.

Inspection on SMEs
SEAF, who manage a total of $740 million of assets worldwide, will be primarily examining SMEs in the sectors of healthcare, information and communications technology, niche manufacturing, energy efficiency, agriculture, leasing and factoring.

“All private equity investors who have been looking for opportunities in the Turkish market are targeting investment sizes high above $10 million,” Barış Öney, founding and managing partner of Globalturk, said. “Our support to SMEs will be provided through a mix of equity and debt, with the share of capital involved around $5 million.”

Öney said that the fund will determine the enterprises within five to six months and the investments will begin by the end of year.