Toprak Holding rises from the ashes

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Halis Toprak, owner of Toprak Holding and family patriarch, appears in this file photo.

Toprak Holding has struck a deal with the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) to liquidate Toprakbank’s debts. Toprak will get back 21 of its firms on June 29, 1,056 days after they were seized, in return for some of the holding’s properties, daily Hürriyet reported.

Having grown rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s, Toprak Holding’s activities in Turkey varied from industrial production, trade, services to banking. The holding owns many factories in ceramics, health equipment, sanitary paper, iron casting, automotive spare parts, fiberglass, cooking oil, animal feed, pharmaceuticals, mining, tourism and construction.

Toprakbank, in which Toprak Holding was the major partner, had been transferred to the TMSF on Nov. 30, 2001, as the bank’s debts exceeded its equity capital.

The latest deal has become the latest phase ending a long-running dispute and lawsuits.

The parties inked a main protocol to discharge Toprakbank’s debts on Dec. 18, 2004. The sides signed additional protocols on Dec. 18, 2004 and on Feb. 6, 2008. However the TMSF seized the firms under Toprak Holding in August 2009 as the holding failed to fulfill its conditions. The holding then filed dozens of cases against the TMSF.

The Toprak family will reassume the holding’s chairmanship as a result of the latest accord.

“Only one [Toprak İzolasyon] out of 22 industrial facilities was sold to a German company. The remaining 21 facilities in six different regions belong to Toprak Holding. Many of these facilities have stopped production. The goal of Toprak Holding is to activate them as soon as possible since they are part of the national wealth and provide 7,500 additional jobs,” Toprak Holding said in a written statement.