FITCH RATING BB̞

Legally, the TWF is not under a public monitoring scheme or the Supreme Court of Public Accounts. However, it has hired an independent auditor, KPMG, for the financials. Presidency auditors prepare an additional report followed by discussions at the Planning and Budget Commission of the Parliament, Sonmez says.

The credit rating agency Fitch recently granted a BB- rating to the fund. Any institution that can’t provide independently monitored financials wouldn’t be able to get such a credit score, Sonmez says.

The TWF is fully compliant with the Santiago Principles of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds. It currently manages a portfolio of 14 companies and two licenses worth $223 billion in assets and an equity of $39 billion. But Sonmez’s plans are much bigger than its portfolio size.

It recently launched a process to merge three life and three non-life insurance companies owned by state banks and acquired a 10 percent stake in Gunes Sigorta from Groupama. Sonmez aims to create a company that will help grow the non-banking financial sector in Turkey and offer services on a regional basis. The company will first complete a full financial and operational merger and later on could seek expansion abroad, he said.

•n the last day of 2019, the TWF acquired its 10 percent stake in Borsa Istanbul from EBRD. It plans to float shares of the company later this year or in H1 2021, when markets are in a more favorable position.

The TWF recently announced a plan to establish a $10 billion petrochemical plant in Ceyhan, in the southern Mediterranean coastal province of Adana. It also plans to merge the mining assets of the state in the same way it did in insurance.

It has established four companies in the insurance, petrochemical, mining and energy sectors to realize TWF’s greenfield investments and to contribute to the structural transformation of the Turkish financial system. It also contributed a EUR 3.7 billion

AT1 capital injection to 8 state-owned banks in April 2019 and announced plan to invest TRY 21 billion core capital to three state banks in May 2020.

GLOBAL GROWTH AMBITIONS

The fund also aims to establish regional offices around the world. It could have had an office in China, if the coronavirus hadn’t hit the country, he says. London and other global finance centers in the Western hemisphere, as well as the Far East, including Japan, and Middle East are in the loop, he adds.

Sonmez calls his colleagues the “Financial Swat Team” of Turkey. The team has to fight on several fronts. If there is a will, there is a way for Sonmez, and challenges are only opportunities, regardless of how strong the headwinds.