Koç and Sabancı’s Battle to Acquire Garanti Bank

One of the battles of these two giants, which are in a very intense competition, is the bank, which is a well-known bank today. With Garanti Bank relating to.

Garanti Bank, the first partnership of Koç and Sabancı, one of Turkey’s giants, was created as a result of a conflict between the two companies. to the cold war It’s transforming, let’s take a look together.

In fact, our story begins in the 70s, when Sabancı grew rapidly and left Koç behind.

in 1975 Koç Holding is looking for a move against its rapidly growing rival Sabancı Holding.

Considering that Sabancı’s ownership of Akbank is the main factor in Sabancı’s rapid growth, especially since the bank it owns is a source of financing for new investments, Koç Holding is a company just like its rival. The bank decides to buy.

At this point, you may be thinking, “Why buy it and set it up yourself?” Since the state did not grant banking licenses in those years, a new It was not possible to establish a bank.

Therefore, considering the conditions of the period, it was necessary to own a bank. already established It was necessary to buy a bank.

Koç, who thought that if he bought the bank, he would take away Sabancı’s competitive advantage, set his sights on Garanti Bank.

Koç, who wants to obtain financial resources like his rival Sabancı and wants to get ahead of his rival by competing under the same conditions, He rolled up his sleeves to get Garanti.

Koç, who decided to buy Garanti Bank, which was founded by Mahmut Nedim İrengün and Halil Naci Mıhçıoğlu in 1946, 30 years after its establishment, that is, in 1976, actually It’s going to be a very difficult period. He would open his door.

There was no stock market at that time and shares had to be purchased one by one from their owners.

Due to the conditions of the period This acquisition would not be as easy as it is today.

Since there was no stock market in those years, in order to buy a share, you had to ask the owner of the share. directly had to be reached. For this reason, Koç reached out to shareholders scattered all over the country and sold their shares. one by one He started collecting.

Koç Holding, which acquired 62% of the shares, stopped at this point, but this was a huge mistake!

Because he heard that Koç Holding was after Garanti shares. Sabancı Holding also set its sights on Garanti Bank.

On the other hand, they were also buying shares and approximately 35% they had bought it.

However, as in other sectors, simply owning a majority share did not bring with it the right to have a say. Because in order to have a say in the banking sector, you need to own shares. at least two thirds had to have it.

As such, Sabancı Holding managed to retain the power to intervene in important decisions to be taken at Garanti Bank.

In other words, Sabancı is responsible for the management of the bank. at a level that can intervene in critical decisions He owned shares.

In fact, when making a decision in return for a capital increase eight tenths They even imposed the condition of having a majority on Koç.

In this regard, there is the following statement in a section from the book written by Vehbi Koç: “Thus, they provided the right to block capital increase decisions. “At this stage, we tried to explain to the Sabancıs that they are their Akbank, that we will make significant sacrifices to develop Garanti Bank, and therefore it will be essential for the management dominance to remain with us.”

For this reason, Garanti Bank was unable to make important decisions.

In fact, the reason why Sabancı became a partner of this bank is not profitability, was to disturb his opponent.

Due to partners regularly disagreeing on important decisions, Garanti Bank is officially He had hit a hard rock.

As a result of the crossfire that Garanti Bank was in the middle of and the contentious process that lasted until the 80s, Vehbi Koç gave up and sold his shares. To Ayhan Şahenk, owner of Doğuş Group He ended his banking adventure by selling it.

Ayhan Şahenk, who bought the shares in 1983, later By purchasing Sabancı’s shares became the majority shareholder and owner of Garanti Bank.

Garanti Bank witnessed various partnerships in the following years.

in 2005 of General Electric Garanti Bank, in which it was a partner, continued its commercial activities in partnership with the Spanish banking giant BBVA, after the withdrawal of General Electric.

Garanti Bank, where BBVA increased its share rates over time, is currently Since 85.97% of the shares are held by BBVA It continues to exist under the dominance of the Spanish partner.

In this content, Vehbi Koç’s book “My Memories, My Opinions, My Advice” “The job that makes me feel like a failure” We told the story of Garanti Bank, which he described as: What do you think about this war between Turkey’s two leading companies?

Our other content that may interest you: