Local pesticide firms’ bankruptcy postponed

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Metropol Kimya and its fellow company İzol have 40 million liras in debt. Company photo

One of Turkey’s leading agricultural pesticide companies is on the verge of bankruptcy due to political strains in the neighboring countries struggling with war and sanctions.

A Turkish court has already ruled on the bankruptcy of Metropol Kimya, one of five largest firms in the sector, and its subsidiary İzol Kimya, but their owner Orhan Kemal İzol has moved to save his firms by filing a petition to postpone their bankruptcy and the court granted an injunction.

İzol’s two companies at issue have been financially slugged by the political factors affecting neighboring countries which İzol Kimya and Metropol Kimya are engaged with.The companies’ exports to Syria have been halted for two and half years in addition to failure in collecting money for its exports to Iran due to Western sanctions imposed on the country. The Metropol companies group has two plants in Ankara and souteastern province of Şanlıurfa and has an annual 100-million Turkish Liras turnover.

Orhan Kemal İzol is one of the prominent leaders of the large Kurdish clan, İzol, which has 3 million members, and is a close relative of Zülfikar İzol, one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who resigned from the party after he wasn’t nominated in 2011 general elections.