Turkey has detained several prominent finance executives as authorities move to contain a market rout driven by a liquidity crunch that has exposed strains in the country’s investment-fund industry.
What happened: Four senior figures linked to investment groups at the center of the turmoil were swept up by Turkish authorities on Thursday. Those detained included Muhammed Yariz, chairman of Pusula Portfoy Yonetimi; Destek Holding Chairman Altunc Kumova; Tera Portfoy Deputy CEO Ibrahim Bekci and Hedef Holding Chairman Namik Kemal Gokalp. It remains unclear whether they remain in custody or have been formally charged.
Authorities also imposed travel restrictions on dozens of members of Turkey’s finance industry amid investigations into capital market transactions, including Tera Holding Chairman Emre Tezmen, Pusula Holding’s Serdar Turhan, Bulls Yatirim Chairman Kemal Akkaya and Lydia Holding Chairman Enver Cevik.
The action follows a decision by Turkey’s Capital Markets Board to suspend trading in and liquidate 130 funds managed by seven portfolio companies, including Tera, Pusula and Hedef. The funds targeted for liquidation had combined assets of $21.4 billion and about 353,000 investors, according to a source cited by Reuters. Bloomberg separately reported that the affected funds had roughly $18 billion in investments as of Wednesday evening.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.