64th place - Ali Erdemoğlu
$ 550 Million Dollars,
Source of the Wealth: The Erdemoğlu Holding
Age: 60, married, with 3 children, Birthplace: Adıyaman
The beginning of the current wealth of İbrahim Erdemoğlu who took place in Forbes 100 for the first time in 2018, with his brother Ali Erdemoğlu, dates back to his initiatives in his school years. Erdemoğlu, who was born in Besni-Adıyaman and spent his childhood and youth in Gaziantep, started his carpet business, which was his father’s profession, with a single loom, when he was studying physics at Black Sea Technical University. His carpet trade turned into today's Merinos. Other companies acting under the Erdemoğlu Holding are Sasa, Erdemoğlu Foreign Trade, Sasa Foreign Trade, Dinarsu Manufacturing, Zeki Textiles, and Özerdem.
The actual important initiative that carried the Erdemoğlu brothers to Forbes 100 was their purchase of 51 percent of Sasa Polyester, which constitutes a significant portion of production of Turkey in the field, with its approximately 350- thousand ton/year installed polymerization capacity in the polyester fiber, filament, and polymer sectors, from the Sabancı Holding for 110 million dollars in 2015. The company, 84,80 percent of whose shares belong to the Erdemoğlu Holding, is being presently traded at Istanbul Stock Exchange with a market value of approximately 1,16 billion dollars.
