June 17, 2017… We are at the Presidential Huber Mansion in Tarabya, Istanbul. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan have an iftar with a group of media group owners, editors-in-chief, columnists, TV program producers and presenters.
In his speech at the iftar, Erdoğan described his meeting with a businessperson that day, without giving a name:
- “A citizen came to meet with me today. He bought a factory. He's getting ready to invest $ 3.5 billion. He asked to me, "Will you inaugurate our new factory?" “Of course, this question makes me walk on the air”…
While leaving the iftar farewell to the President one by one, I asked him:
- Which company will make the $ 3.5 billion investment?
He did not want to tell the name.
He said”- Before you, Sabah's author, Şelale Kadak, also pushed me too. It would not be suitable to disclose investor’s name to you for now Let's not announce it early, so don't get rough”.
I promised him:
- I will not write without asking in advance.
President Erdogan participated the General Assembly of Turkey Exporters Assembly the day before the afternoon. As soon as I left the Huber Mansion, I sounded some businessmen out who were present at the general assembly. I identified the investor Erdoğan mentioned:
At 23.30 I sent a message to Chairman of Erdemoğlu Holding İbrahim Erdemoğlu and listed my questions one after another.:
- “We are planning a big investment to produce PTA, MEG and Polymer as the main raw material used by Sasa Polyester.
He reminded me the statement that they made to Public Disclosure Platform (KAP):
- We increase the size of the investment we plan to produce the main raw material of our company from 2 billion to 3.6 billion dollars, and the investment period from 6 to 8 years..
Last week, we visited İbrahim Erdemoğlu with Hakan Güldağ and Handan Sema Ceylan. We asked about the latest situation regarding the land in Yumurtalık, he replied:
- - The tender will be held next week. Whatever the price is, we are thinking of paying and buying..
He shared the monetary amount of the first phase of the investment with us:
- We are planning an investment of 4.5 billion dollars in the first stage.
He pointed to a product he plans to add to their range:
- Turkey imports 1 million tons of ammonia annually for fertilizer production. We decided to add ammonia to our production range in Yumurtalık.
He underlined that ammonia production is not a profitable business:
- I saw that our country needs it, so I thought we should produce it. 1 billion dollars of the first phase investment of 4.5 billion dollars will be for ammonia production.
Last week, it went out to tender with the immovables on an area of 4 million 58 thousand square meters, consisting of 116 parcels in the district of Yumurtalık, Adana, in Akyuva, Demirtaş and Hunutlu. In the final bargaining stage of the tender, in which 5 companies participated, Sasa Polyester came to the fore with a bid of 2.1 billion liras.
When I read the result of the tender, I remembered 5 years ago, President Erdoğan's speech at the Huber Mansion.
The solution of the land issue planned for Sasa to take the first step towards an investment of up to 20 billion dollars took 5 years, although President Erdoğan was personally involved.
With the land tender, the first phase investment of 4.5 billion dollars of Sasa was opened.
Sasa will act as 'arm', 5 separate companies will be fingers
İbrahim Erdemoğlu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ERDEMOĞLU Holding, made the following plan while working on Sasa's giant investments:
- Together with our investment in Yumurtalık, we will establish 5 companies affiliated with Sasa. Sasa will act as an arm. All 5 companies will be the fingers of that arm. Sasa will rule the fingers.
He stated that they can receive foreign investors to the 5 companies in question:
- We can get foreign partners, not exceeding 49 percent, for our 5 companies that will be Sasa's fingers. This is how we will evaluate future offers.
While listening to this plan, we asked:
- Will there be a foreign partner for Sasa?
He gave a clear answer: We do not take foreign partners to Sasa's parent company. Independence is our character.
