| Galatasaray: hard to beat on the pitch but losing in the market |
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Egged on by vociferous fans, Galatasaray is doing well. Turkey's top football club has not been beaten for 18 home European matches.
Now intense competition with local rivals Besiktas in Istanbul has reopened the Turkish IPO market in a remarkable way with both clubs racing to do offerings on the same day selling similar numbers of shares.
Besiktas offered 326.5 million, raising $14 million and Galatasaray offered 325.6 million to raise $20 million.
Neither club was prepared to lose face despite adverse market conditions and unjust newspaper reports claiming they were in big trouble with the tax authorities. Ozlu Yalaza, assistant manager of Global Securities, sole bookrunner of the Galatasaray IPO, says that while some investors got the deals confused, competition from Besiktas was not a big worry in the end, with an increased allocation of 65% going to international investors.