Murat Ülker: I live in my mother's house, I don't have a home anywhere else!
Yıldız Holding's consolidation of its international operations, including Ülker, under the umbrella of a company it established in London under the name Pladis Global has sparked allegations that the group is exiting Türkiye. Murat Ülker, a board member of Yıldız Holding and Godiva, spoke to Sadi Özdemir and said the following:
My father built the house on my mother's behalf
I don't know where these rumors come from, but everyone asks, "Where else do you have a house?" I don't have one anywhere else, I'm not looking for one, and I don't need one. I live in my mother's house, thank God. My father named the house after my mother, and we did the same. We're all children, living in the same house. One day, even Rahmi Koç said to me, "Man, you did a good job moving all the work abroad." That's when I realized... We didn't actually move anything; on the contrary, we brought the things from abroad here. We registered them in Türkiye. They say, "He took the money and left." Of course, you can send money to your family and friends, but capital transfers require permission from the Treasury.
It's the same everywhere in the world. For example, when we bought Godiva, we wrote to the Treasury, saying, "We're buying this, we've entered a tight corridor, is that okay?" The Treasury responded within half an hour, saying, "Okay," because it's a tender, and they know it. If they had said, "No," we wouldn't have gotten it. How did the financing work? I have a loan from abroad, and I took it. Foreign lenders offer loans abroad, and we received a 12-year term with a 2.5% interest rate in dollars. Why would you take a loan from Turkey with a 15% interest rate in dollars? You wouldn't be able to do business anyway. Everyone says something, but the conditions for doing business aren't like that. For example, I had a large project in Japan, and I was financing it there because the interest rates are negative in Japan, but they won't let you bring that money here.
ekonomim
