Will Ankara feast on Turkey's largest food producer?
Rumors that Turkey's largest food producer could be targeted in the government's post coup-attempt crackdown are eroding investor confidence.
“Good morning, time to buy,” tweeted Murat Ulker, the CEO of Yildiz Holding, Turkey’s largest food producer and the world’s third-largest snack manufacturer. After those words today, the tycoon proceeded to snap up 100,000 shares in Ulker, a Yildiz subsidiary.
Some would view Ulker's move as business smarts, others as an act of defiance. In any event, Ulker, seemed determined to show faith in his own brand after a columnist for the pro-government Sabah suggested that Yildiz would be the next conglomerate targeted for alleged links to Fethulllah Gulen, the shadowy Sunni imam whom the Turkish government has accused of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt.
Dilek Gungor’s sensationalist piece hinting that Yildiz might have a large, “hidden” stake in Kaynak Holding, a Gulen-linked group of companies whose assets were seized last week, sent shares in three of Yildiz’s subsidiaries, including the flagship biscuit maker Ulker, tumbling by 12% on the Istanbul stock exchange.
Yildiz swiftly rebuffed claims that it has been implicated in the proceedings against Kaynak. The group said in a statement that it had “nothing to do” with the probe. Ulker similarly tweeted, “Dear investors, beware. There are those who are sowing panic for no reason. We remain unsullied [and] our business is clean. We continue to work.”
