Turkish tycoon Rahmi Koc announced last month that his business empire, Turkey’s largest, had grown enough at home and was turning to overseas investments. “The Koc Group has to open up to the world,” Koc said at a Jan. 18 press conference. “From now on, the investments will be abroad.”

Koc claimed his company had become “two sizes too big” for Turkey, and the competition watchdog was now constraining its growth. Referring to Koc Holding’s home appliances giant, he said, “When Arcelik adds another two points to its market share, the Competition Authority instantly tells us that it is too much, that we should stop. When we buy something new, they deny a permission. Hence, we need to move investments abroad.”

With annual sales equivalent to 6% of Turkey’s gross domestic product, Koc Holding employed 83,000 people at the end of 2016. That 16% of those employees were abroad means it already has significant investments overseas.

In 2016, Arcelik’s consolidated turnover stood at 16 billion Turkish liras ($4.3 billion), 60% of which came from international markets, including production abroad. Arcelik’s domestic appliances brand Beko is the second largest in Europe. The company owns plants in Romania and South Africa, manufacturing home appliances under the brands Arctic and Defy, respectively. In 2016, the company acquired Dawlance, Pakistan’s leading home appliances maker, including its three plants and distribution network, to create a “commercial corridor for a stable and strong presence between Asia-Pacific and Turkey.”