The Competition Authority published the Annual Report for 2023 on its official website on 13 August 2024. The Report provides an insight into the Turkish market and the leading sectors in the M&A arena.

Article 7 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Law”) prohibits M&A transactions with the aim of creating a dominant position or strengthening an existing dominant position, which would result in a significant decrease in effective competition in any goods or services market in the whole or part of the country. It is also stipulated that in order for certain types of transactions to be legally valid, the Competition Board (“Board”) must be notified in advance and permission must be obtained, and the Board is authorized to determine which types of M&As must be notified to the Board and permission must be obtained through communiqués.

In 2023, a total of 217 M&A transactions were examined by the Competition Authority. The top ten sectors that were the subject of these decisions, which accounted for approximately 88% of all M&A decisions, are below:

1. Information Technologies and Platform Services

2. Chemistry and Mining

3. Health Services

4. Automotive and Vehicles

5. Logistics, Storage and Postage

6. Food Industry

7. Infrastructure Services

8. Machine Industry

9. Construction

10. Banking, Capital Markets, Finance and Insurance Services

In 2023, when the transactions made for Turkey-based target companies are analysed, it can be seen that the foreign investors who made the most transactions were from the countries below:

• Germany

• Netherlands

• Luxembourg

Analysing the parties of the transactions, in 48 of the 217 M&As examined by the Competition Authority in 2023, all of the parties were of Turkish origin, and in 118 of them, all of the parties were companies established in accordance with the laws of foreign countries. When all transactions excluding privatisations are taken into consideration, the total transaction value of M&As between companies in which all parties are of Turkish origin is TRY 81 billion 924 million (USD 3.45 billion). In the same period, the total transaction value of transactions in which all parties were foreign companies was TRY 57 trillion 375 billion (USD 2.41 trillion). In 41 of these transactions, at least one of the parties to the transaction are Turkish and foreign companies. The reported transaction value of M&As in which at least one of the transaction parties is a Turkish and foreign company is TRY 67 billion 293 million (USD 2.83 billion).

184 of the 187 applications, which were determined to be within the scope of the Law and subject to authorisation, were allowed unconditionally and three of them were allowed conditionally. The Board concluded that 30 M&A transactions were out of scope or not subject to authorisation. In 2023, there were no applications regarding M&A/joint venture/privatisation transactions that were not authorised. In the 5-year period, it can be said that approximately 99% of the M&A transactions notified and found to be subject to the authorisation of the Board were authorised unconditionally.

The number of completed merger/acquisition/joint venture/privatisation transactions decreased by around 12%. As in the 2019-2022 period, the majority of these decisions in 2023 were the acquisition decisions. In 2023, the distribution of the transactions finalised in accordance with Article 7 of the Law is below:

• Acquisition transactions with 139 files, about 64%

• Joint venture establishment procedures with 73 files, about 34%

• In 2023, two merger transactions and three privatisation transactions were concluded.