The Mergers and Acquisitions Overview Report for 2023 has been Published

On 5 January 2024, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) published its Mergers and Acquisitions Overview Report for 2023 (“Report”) on its website.

The Report includes a comprehensive overview of merger control in Turkey in 2023 by providing statistics for merger control cases that took place in 2023 as well as comparisons with previous years.

In 2023, the Turkish Competition Board (“Board”) examined a total of 217 mergers and acquisitions, the number of notified transactions in 2023 decreased by 12% compared to the 245 transactions reported in 2022. The average number of transactions covering the period from 2013 to 2023 is 219. Accordingly, the total number of mergers and acquisitions examined in the year 2023 is lower than the average of the last ten years.

The number of transactions (excluding privatizations) in which the target company was established in Türkiye increased from 82 in 2022 to 94 in 2023. When categorized by party origin for transactions realized in Türkiye, of the examined transactions:

• The total number of transactions that originated in Türkiye was 48,
• The number of transactions in which at least one of the parties is of Turkish origin was 39, and
• The number of transactions in which all parties are of foreign origin was 7.

In terms of notified mergers and acquisitions where the target company is located in Türkiye, "generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy" and “computer programming, consultancy, and related activities” are the areas with the highest number of transactions in 2023. The highest transaction value occurred in the “animal production” sector. The transaction value in this sector accounts for approximately 23% of the transactions in Türkiye reported in 2023, excluding privatizations.

The number of transactions carried out by foreign investors in Türkiye was 36 while the number of transactions consummated abroad and notified in Türkiye was 113 in 2023.

When these transactions are ranked according to economic activity areas based on transaction value, the most prominent sectors invested in worldwide in 2023 are as follows:

• Computer programming, consulting and related activities
• Programming and publishing activities
• Manufacture of food products
• Chemical product manufacturing
• Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products
• Wholesale, retail trade, and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles

It is noteworthy that "computer programming, consultancy and related activities" is also the sector with the largest number of notified transactions in Türkiye.

An analysis of the number of transactions by investor origin reveals that Germany ranked first with 8 transactions and the Netherlands ranked second with 5. These countries were then followed by Luxemburg with 3 transactions.

In terms of privatizations, there were 3 transactions resolved by the Board in 2023. These transactions relate to the sub-branches of the “furniture,” “textile products,” “apparel,” and “manufacturing” sectors.

In terms of the decision-making period of the TCA, the Report indicates that the mergers and acquisitions notified to the TCA were finalized on an average of 13 days in 2023 starting from the last notification date. In 2022, this period was 15 days on average. However, the Report does not clarify whether the last notification date is the date of the notification or the date of the parties’ last submission to the TCA in response to the information and document requests that may have been sent by the TCA following the notification of a transaction.