Kaynak Holding to legally challenge pro-gov’t press and regulators

Kaynak Holding condemns the pro-government press slander and the Turkish banking watchdog BDDK's overhaul of shares its subsidiaries’ held in publicly traded Bank Asya.

“The March 5, 2015 reports in the Akşam, Aydınlık, Star, Takvim, Yeni Şafak and Sabah newspapers, which interestingly featured the same headlines and sentences, giving the impression of a coordinated effort, is further lying on their website claiming that Kaynak Holding was being taken over,” read a statement from Kaynak Holding.

Kaynak Holding’s statement came in the aftermath of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency’s (BDDK) decision on Wednesday to order the seizure of shares belonging to the two subsidiaries - publisher Sürat Basım and construction firm Forum İnşaat – in publicly traded Bank Asya by the state-owned Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF). The TMSF had previously taken over management of other privileged shares in Bank Asya in early February.

Notably, prior to this week’s takeover, pro-government press outlets had claimed that Kaynak Holding’s sale to a Dutch firm in January was riddled with irregularities. In its response Kaynak Holding noted that it “had long informed the BDDK and supplied documentation on the sale to Dutch based INL Partners on Feb. 16, 2015,” making any such takeover unjustifiable, and the manipulative reporting of pro-government press reporting therefore untrue. Notably the Sabah daily had even boasted as to how its reporting had led to the BDDK action – which clearly indicates defamation.

Wednesday’s share overhaul came right after a warning from the international ratings agency Standard and Poors (S and P), which stated that government-backed attacks and a February management overhaul showed the potential for political risks to spill over into the financial system.

The February takeover of 63 percent of the bank’s privileged shares was perpetrated by the state owned Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) on orders from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) who used a so-called lack of transparency and documentation as a pretext. The move was politically backed by President Erdoğan who, for a long time, had called for the bank to be taken over, and by pro-government press, which manipulatively and wrongfully spread rumors that the bank was going under.

Kaynak Holding stated it would legally challenge the BDDK, TMSF and the pro-government press.

Published on BGNNews, 05 March 2015, Thursday

Related

• Context, fact and law: demystifying the Bank Asya takeover
• History of politically motivated assault on Bank Asya
• Asya shares partially seized as S and P warns of risks