Your Turkish business, sold discreetly and in full competition.

1. 01

   Who buys a Turkish business?

   Most often, a Turkish company or fund. In the first nine months of 2026, nearly four in five transactions with a Turkish target in our register had a Turkish buyer: 198 of 255. The 51 buyers from abroad came from Europe (28), North America (12), Asia (5), the Gulf (3), the Caucasus and Central Asia (2) and elsewhere (1).

   The Turkish buyers include family-controlled groups and local funds that a sale run from abroad may never reach. We approach them in Turkish, through people who know them, and bring them into the same process as the international buyers, so that each prices against the other. Our guide for international owners names recent sales by international groups to Turkish buyers, and a note on fund exits shows who buys when a fund sells.

2. 02

   How does a sale run with headquarters, the board and local management?

   As one process with clear roles. Headquarters, usually corporate development, sets the objectives and takes the decisions; the board approves at the points that need it, typically the mandate, the shortlist and signing; local management supplies the numbers and meets the buyers.

   We run the work from Istanbul and report to headquarters on a fixed rhythm, in English. Local management’s time goes where only they can help: the information memorandum, the management presentation and the answers in diligence, so that the business keeps its pace while it is being sold.

3. 03

   Headquarters has asked me to find an adviser. Where do I start?

   With a confidential conversation in Istanbul. We work with you here and with corporate development at home, in Turkish and in English, so that what headquarters reads and what buyers in Turkey hear is the same story.

   We can help you prepare what headquarters will ask for: who the likely buyers are, what the business will be valued on and how long a sale takes. What you tell us stays between you, us and the people you choose inside the company.

4. 04

   How do we keep it confidential, inside the company and outside?

   Inside, with a code name and a small circle: usually the general manager, the finance director and the people at headquarters who need to know. Others join when the process needs them, and the group decides when employees hear of it. In a sale of shares the company stays the employer; only its owner changes.

   Outside, buyers first see a short teaser that does not name the company. The name and the information memorandum go only to those who sign a confidentiality agreement, which we write to bar them from approaching your people and customers. If the buyer needs merger clearance, the Competition Authority announces the notified transaction on its website, with the parties and their activities, so the announcement is planned around the filing.

5. 05

   What will a Turkish buyer look at in the accounts?

   The statutory accounts first, in lira. Companies reporting under Turkish Financial Reporting Standards restate their annual accounts for inflation, under TMS 29, for every year ending on or after 31 December 2023, as the Public Oversight Authority requires. For most companies the tax books carry no inflation adjustment after 31 December 2024 (Tax Procedure Law, provisional article 37). The group reporting package, in the group’s own accounting policies and currency, is a third set.

   A buyer will want the three reconciled, and will price what the group provides today: shared services, licences, management fees and intercompany loans. We build that bridge before the first buyer asks for it.

6. 06

   How long does it take, and which approvals will the buyer need?

   Typically six to twelve months from the start of preparation to signing; completion follows the approvals. Since 11 February 2026 the Competition Board must clear an acquisition when, among other tests, the business sold has Turkish turnover above TRY 1bn and the buyer’s group has worldwide turnover above TRY 9bn; for a technology company based in Turkey, TRY 250m replaces the TRY 1bn. Your group’s own turnover does not count. If the Board neither approves the transaction nor opens a final examination, it takes legal effect 30 days after a complete filing.

   Some sectors add a regulator’s approval of the new owner: the banking regulator for a bank, the central bank for a payment or e-money institution, the energy regulator for an electricity company with regulated tariffs. For a bank or a payment institution, the seller’s reduction below set thresholds needs approval too.

7. 07

   In which currency is the price set, and how is it paid?

   In our experience, a business sold by a group abroad is priced in euros or dollars and paid at completion, with any deferred part secured by a bank guarantee or an escrow. The care goes into whatever is measured in lira between signing and completion: the working capital target, net debt and any earn-out. We set those in the price currency, or index them.

   The proceeds of a sale, like dividends, may be transferred abroad freely through banks (Foreign Direct Investment Law, Article 3). Take tax advice on the gain early: it can shape the structure.

8. 08

   Our group already has a global adviser. Where does Orion fit?

   Alongside it. The global adviser covers the international buyers; we bring the Turkish ones, speak to them in Turkish and handle what is local: the accounts, the approvals, the management team and the timetable. One process, one data room, one set of answers.

   Where the group has no global adviser, the Globalscope member firm in the buyer’s market works with us, so that buyers abroad are also reached by people who know them.

9. 09

   Our company is based abroad, but its founders are Turkish. Is this for us?

   Yes. Companies that Turkish founders have built abroad are drawing more capital and more buyers: 18 raised capital or were sold in the first nine months of 2026. Most are in technology.

   Wherever the company is incorporated, we run the process with you, in Turkish where it helps, and with the Globalscope member firm in that market when it adds reach.

Before you start: How to sell your company · How Turkish companies are valued in M&A transactions