Turkyish fertiliser maker’s slump sparks investor’s call for buyback

ISTANBUL: The biggest individual investor in a state-run Turkyish fertilier maker has hit out over the stock’s plunge of more than 61% in the past two weeks and says it should buy back shares as a means of support.

Oguzhan Sahinkaya, a 46-year-old self-made entrepreneur, said investors in Gubre Fabrikalari TAS (Gubretas) have become “victims of a dispute” between the company and Turkiye’s markets regulator, which on Dec 18 rejected an application by the firm to increase capital in a bonus issue.

Gubretas should urgently announce share buybacks, Sahinkaya told Bloomberg by phone yesterday.

The plunge in Gubretas shares has unnerved Turkyish stock investors, leading to declines in the country’s Borsa Istanbul 100 Index, which, with a drop of 7%, has fallen more than any major benchmark in the past month.

Prior to December, the stock had risen more than 40% year-to-date, fuelled by strong earnings and expectations about a gold mine.

Gubretas’ selloff came after the company, majority-owned by the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkiye, saw its application for a capital increase blocked because of a lawsuit in Iran against its local unit, Razi Petrochemical Co.

Over nine trading days, including last Thursday, the shares fell by a maximum 61% to 139.9 lira, their lowest level since October 2022.

Sahinkaya suggested that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on Dec 22 said his government wouldn’t allow “manipulators” to operate on the stock market, should “intervene” in the situation, although he didn’t say how.

Sahinkaya, who is also the founder and chairman of Bursa-based Seva Holding, a privately held company operating in education and construction, owns 6.9% of Gubretas, according to Borsa Istanbul data.

The regulator highlighting uncertainty on some consolidated financial tables “has led to unease among local investors,” said Cemal Demirtas, an analyst at Istanbul-based Ata Investment.

“Because of Gubretas’ weighting on the benchmark BIST 100 Index, its decline is leading to a spillover.”

After the market closed yesterday, Gubretas issued a statement saying that the rejection of its planned capital increase “has no negative impact on our company’s operations”.

The Capital Markets Board didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Sahinkaya, the son of teachers who made his fortune in business and whose company Seva is also active in sectors such as informatics, publishing, furniture and interior design, first came to public attention through an interview in the Haberturk newspaper more than three years ago.

The paper quoted him then as saying manipulators were afraid to speculate in Gubretas shares because of his presence.

Sahinkaya said last Wednesday that he purchased “maybe a million shares” more in the week before the company announced the regulator’s rejection.

“And after the shares fell, I continued buying,” he said. — Bloomberg