“The rules of the match have been changing a lot lately in Turkey.”

Nurdogan ARSLAN ERGUN

With the joint contributions of Koç University and Esas Holding, Turkey’s first Alternative Investments Center (KUES) is being established within Koç University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences and the Graduate School of Business Administration. The center, which will conduct research focusing on alternative investment areas such as private equity, venture capital, real estate, and strategic asset allocation, aims to create a new alternative investments ecosystem.

Additionally, students will be able to learn more about investing in private equity, venture capital, real estate and other alternative asset classes.

Speaking at the introductory meeting of KUES, the “alternative investments center” opened in cooperation with Koç University and Esas Holding, Koç Holding Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ali Koç, said, “Recently, the rules of the game in Turkey have been constantly changing. Billions of dollars of money around the world are looking for a place to go. “An environment should be created to attract foreign money,” he said. Stating that knowledge is power to attract foreign money, Koç said, “I believe that this center will guide in attracting foreign capital.”

Sabancı: 2 trillion dollar will move

Stating that the world has changed and companies and families can compete within themselves, but they must cooperate against change, Koç said, “In this way, billions of dollars of funds can be managed. “This opens the door to different collaborations,” he said.

Speaking at the program, Esas Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ali Sabancı, said that the Koç ecosystem is a structure called ‘if you do good, it is good, if you do bad, it is bad’. Sabancı said, “I owe my being here today to the Koç family. After the accident, the Koç family brought me back to life. KUES is a structure where two groups understand each other. “It developed naturally,” he said.

Noting that the two families had some joint experiments in the past, Sabancı emphasized that the center was the first collaboration that was recently implemented in academic and financial terms. Sabancı said, “2 trillion dollars will change place. This may be in banks or in alternative investments. “We set out to train managers who will look at alternative investments,” he said.

“Real estate is more guaranteed for fixed income, but…”

“Which of the alternative investment instruments would you recommend for white-collar workers?” Answering the question, Esas Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ali Sabancı, said, “Investment is very related to the individual. Fixed income earners can choose real estate according to their willingness to take risks. The possibility of doubling the money is more guaranteed, but less. Private capital can fly, but it comes with its own risks. “Hedge funds will fly even higher in a short time, but the risk is also high,” he said.