The New Rapid Risers

Some groups have recently caught the eye through the pace of their “rapid growth”. There are even those who have achieved growth of 500 percent through the investments they have made, the new areas they have entered and the successful partnerships they have formed. Capital studied the new rapidly growing stars.

Ethem Sancak… Those who follow the business world closely will know Ethem Sancak and his colorful personality. But, because for the last ten years he has been amongst the fastest growing, there are also more people who do not know Ethem Sancak. However, together with his foreign partner, he is taking Hedef Alliance Holding, which has a turnover of US$4 billion, from success to success. In the last five years, he has more than doubled the size of his company.

Just like Ethem Sancak and Hedef Alliance, there are other businesspeople and companies which have been expanding rapidly and silently. In addition to the leading holdings in Turkey, Capital has also gathered together these new groups which have caught the eye as a result of their rapid growth.

Ic Has Grown By 500 Percent In Seven Years
One of groups which has most made a name for itself in recent years is IC Holding. It takes its name from the English initials of İbrahim Çeçen. Even if IC has only recently really made a name for itself, it is a giant group with 19 companies, 7,000 employees and a turnover of US$470 million. To date it has continued to grow silently and unobtrusively. In recent years, its name has begun to be mentioned more frequently as the result of its participation in major tenders, such as those for Galaport, Bomonti Brewery, Antalya Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Ibrahim Çeçen believes that a partnership with foreign capital and the experience gained through this partnership has played a significant role in the acceleration in its growth. Çeçen is even more upbeat about the future. He is planning to expand abroad with strong partnerships in sectors in which the holding is already active, such as construction, tourism, energy and port and airport management.

Blossomed Through Mining
When Koza Davetiye went public in February 2003 it had a market value of US$18.9 million. Over the following five years, Koza was transformed. It expanded its area of operations. It significantly changed its stock market performance and financial tables. As a result, in the five years since it went public, the company increased its market value 24-fold. Today Koza is a US$453.5 million company.

From A Basement Market To A Retail Chain
In 1994 Kiler comprised a single store in Bakırköy in Istanbul, which was operating out of a basement. The brothers Nahit, Vahit and Ümit Kiler, who originally came from Bitlis, took over the market from their father and, adopting a mercantile approach, focused on growth. In 1997, when several chains withdrew from the sector, they accelerated their speed of growth through acquisitions. Kiler started 1997 with three stores and closed the year with seven. This is how it made it made its first growth spurt.

But the period when Kiler has taken its giant steps has been the last five years. Vahit Kiler had always been interested in politics and in 2003 he entered parliament as a Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy from Bitlis. Over the next one to two years Kiler increased the number of its large-scale stores. On average, 25,000 people now shop in Kiler stores every day and its target is to expand throughout Turkey by 2012.

Earned In Construction, Invested In Tourism
One of the success stories that has attracted the most attention in recent years has been that achieved with Rixos by Fettah Tamince, who set off from Van to Antalya at the age of 13 and began his business career by selling carpets. Tamince’s name first became known when, while he was still just 35, he opened the seven star Rixos Hotel Premium in Belek in Antalya. It was the prime minister and his family who cut the ribbon and also the prime minister and his family who were the first guests. After this hotel in Belek, other hotels were opened one after the other in Antalya and other touristic places. Fettah Tamince has announced that he wants to make Rixos into a global brand and, within ten years, be the owner of a chain of 1,000 hotels spread through every corner of the world. Everybody is curious about the source of his capital and how far he will go.

Today, Fettah Tamince receives revenue of around US$140 million from nine hotels and, even if he is known for his tourism business, in fact his main source of revenue is the Sembol İnşaat construction company. The company has an annual turnover of US$350 million. Tamince, who invests the money he earns from this business in tourism, is happy to be known as the hotel king. He is looking for the opportunity to enter new sectors. The sectors in which he is particularly interested are education and health.

Özlem Aydın
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