Public offerings hit record in Turkey last year
ISTANBUL
Initial public offerings (IPO) hit a record number of 52 last year, with the volume of those IPOs nearing 22 billion Turkish Liras, Korkmaz Ergun, the CEO of Borsa Istanbul, has said.
“2021 was a successful year for capital markets as the markets reached all-time highs in the number of IPOs, the number of investors, index values and trading volumes,” he said, noting that all services were provided uninterruptedly despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
In his assessment of the developments in 2021 in a statement, Ergun said that the size of the IPOs stood at 21.6 billion liras, noting that in 2020, eight companies launched an IPO worth 1.1 billion while the previous record was in 1990 at 35 companies.
Among the world’s stock exchanges, Borsa Istanbul rose by 14, ranking 13th in terms of the number of initial public offerings, according to Ergun.
“Companies from many sectors operating in different cities of our country such as İstanbul, Ankara, Aydın, Balıkesir, Denizli, Erzurum, İzmir, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Kütahya, Manisa and Rize joined us. We have supported our companies to access the long-term financing they need. We aim to strengthen the equity capital of companies.”
In 2021, with debt instrument issuances, 258.5 billion liras of resource was provided through capital markets, according to Ergun.
He also noted that while 1.2 million citizens had shares at the beginning of 2020, this number increased to 2.4 million at the end of 2021.
The growing number of retail investors means more responsibilities; thus steps are taken to inform investors about financial literacy and to protect investor interests, he said.
Records set in the daily trading volumes at 91.2 billion liras in the equity market and 69.4 billion liras in the derivatives market in 2021 and the average daily trading volume in the equity market was 30.2 billion liras, up from 26.2 billion liras in 2020, Ergun added.
“All services were provided uninterruptedly despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Moreover, efforts to develop new financial products and services according to the needs of the market continued unabated.”
He also noted that Borsa Istanbul’s net profit increased by 44 percent to stand at around 2.1 billion liras.
“In the period to come, we will make every effort to take steps to strengthen our capital markets and offer products and services that meet the needs of investors and companies with the support of our stakeholders,” Ergun said.
