"We completed the public offering of 34 companies in 2023"
Stating that 44 companies completed their public offerings in 2022 and 34 companies completed their public offerings in 2023 to date, Capital Markets Board Chairman İbrahim Ömer Gönül said, "We provided approximately 23 billion TL in resources to our companies through our stock exchange in 2022 and approximately 47.2 billion TL in 2023." Capital Markets Board Chairman İbrahim Ömer Gönül warned investors, whose number has reached 8 million in Borsa Istanbul. Gönül drew attention to the fact that social media fraud is the most important problem of the age and said, "Investors should be careful about membership-based groups and chat rooms created on social media platforms and stay away from them. They should not trust those who want to gain benefits under the name of tips and rumors." Speaking at the Turkish Capital Markets Congress, Gönül stated that the stock exchange continues to be favored both in terms of supply and demand, and said, "Today, we have approximately 11 million investors investing in capital market instruments and approximately 14 million investors investing in the individual retirement system. Similarly, our companies continue to favor our stock exchange on the supply side. After completing the public offerings of 44 of our companies in 2022, we have completed the public offerings of 34 of our companies in 2023 to date. We provided approximately 23 billion TL in 2022 and approximately 47.2 billion TL in 2023 to our companies through our stock exchange." Emphasizing that private sector debt instruments and lease certificates are two other important elements that provide financing in capital markets, Gönül said, "These instruments are traded as an alternative to bank loans for our companies to provide medium and long-term financing. It provided 461.8 billion TL in 2022 and 508.9 billion TL in 2023. Our fund markets also hold a very important place for the deepening of our capital markets. In this respect, as of the end of September this year, a total of 1,747 funds are traded, including 1,349 securities investment funds, 377 retirement investment funds and 21 stock exchange investment funds." “Savings level at 2 trillion Turkish lira” Gönül stated that as of the end of September 2023, the savings level in securities and pension investment funds was approximately 2 trillion Turkish lira, and reported that in the same period, the total portfolio size managed by portfolio management companies reached 2.66 trillion Turkish lira, the number of venture capital investment funds reached 262, and the total value of the funds reached 83.3 billion Turkish lira. CMB President Gönül also provided information about crowdfunding introduced to the capital markets by the CMB. Stating that crowdfunding enables venture companies with business ideas to reach the funds they need in the sharing of technological products and services with high added value and competitiveness in Turkey, Gönül said that there are currently 12 crowdfunding platforms, that the total funded value through these platforms is 681.8 million Turkish lira, the number of companies whose shares have been distributed has reached 91, and the number of investors has reached 26,610. “Today, financial literacy is of particular importance” Emphasizing that financial literacy is of particular importance in today’s world, where capital markets are showing rapid development and the number of investors has increased considerably, Gönül concluded her words as follows: “In order to increase the level of financial literacy, we organize educational seminars, painting and composition competitions for primary, secondary, high school and university students. We are also working on a protocol with the Ministry of Family and Social Services for housewives and female entrepreneurs. We will also implement a very important project for financial literacy this month. Under the leadership of our Board, we will be opening the Financial Literacy Portal, which will be launched by the Capital Markets Licensing, Registry and Training Organization to increase the financial literacy level of individuals, this month. The qualitative and quantitative developments in our markets and the close monitoring of technological developments show how close the Istanbul Finance Center is to becoming a regional/global center. We are taking action to establish a ‘Capital Markets and Finance Vocational Anatolian High School’ in the Istanbul Finance Center in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education. Thus, we aim to train and employ qualified human resources for the sector from a young age. Independently from this, we continue our work to implement the 'IFM Finance Academy' with all stakeholders and to provide training and certification programs for university graduates and sector professionals."