A growth partnership
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"To invest alongside SMEs you need to have lived through their issues and be seen to be independent, otherwise you are seen as nothing more than a bank" Robert Romain |
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"The multinationals and holding companies dominated bank lending and then the consumer boom of the past few years has meant the banks have been focusing on credit cards and consumer credit" |
Turkey is a country of SMEs. To foreign investors and banks used to dealing with the top echelons, it might come as a surprise that only 12% of the top 1,000 companies in the country are listed. But to Robert Romain and Kerim Yalman, the founding partners of Pera Capital Partners, this is the opportunity set they are pursuing. "To invest alongside SMEs you need to have lived through their issues and be seen to be independent, otherwise you are seen as nothing more than a bank," says Romain. "You need to be able to see eye to eye with them on operational issues to be truly seen as an equity partner." Yalman brings direct experience of this.