Koç businesses top largest companies list

Ford Automotive, a joint venture between Koç and Ford Motor Company, and Arçelik, Koç’s home appliances maker, ranked second and third on the list.  

The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) announced its list of Turkey’s top 500 firms on June 7. 

Tüpraş, which has remained in the top position since 2005, earned 35.4 billion liras ($12.1 billion) in turnover in 2015.        

Ford Automotive made 14.7 billion liras ($5 billion) in turnover while Arçelik earned 9.9 billion liras ($3.4 billion) last year. 

Automotive makers Oyak Renault and Tofaş, another Koç company, placed fourth and fifth, respectively, on the İSO list.         

İSO President Erdal Bahçıvan said the İSO 500 companies’ net sales increased 7 percent in 2015, reaching a total of 450 billion liras ($155.3 billion) from 421 billion liras ($145.3 billion) in 2014.  
 
    
Rise in financing costs

Bahçıvan also warned that Turkish industrialists’ financing costs had increased 75 percent.      
 
“Industrialists are losing 63.4 percent of their profit in financing expenses. Two thirds of the money industrialists earn by fighting tooth and nail are going into financing,” he was quoted as saying by Anadolu Agency.  

“It does not seem easy to continue to keep the wheel of industry turning with such a model,” he added.  
     
Stating that Turkey’s growth should be backed by research and development as well as high technology, he said: “Small and medium-scaled enterprises (SMEs), which we will encourage to produce high value-added productions, will help Turkey’s quality growth with their dynamism.”        

According to ISO research, Turkey’s manufacturing industry growth was under the national economic average over the last four years, with the exception of 2014.        

In 2015, the Turkish economy grew 4 percent while the manufacturing industry’s growth was 3.8 percent.        
In the same year, ISO 500 companies’ exports decreased 12.9 percent, from $61.3 billion to $53.4 billion.        
The top five exporters on the ISO 500 list were Ford Automotive, Tüpraş, Oyak Renault, Tofaş and Arçelik.        
The Istanbul Chamber of Industry has been listing the top 500 companies since 1968.