CMB President Gönül: There were nearly 100 public offering applications

In his interview with Bloomberg, CMB President Gönül answered questions about the rapidly increasing number of Stock Exchange investors in the last year and the public offerings that everyone in Turkey is talking about.

Reminding that increasing demand is important for the stock market, Gönül added, “But we want these 8.5 million people to look at it with an investor logic, not with an input-output logic such as enthusiasm or games.”

‘If there is an outflow towards deposits, supplies may slow down’

Explaining that people turn to the stock market because they are looking for different instruments to evaluate their money, Gönül said, “Undoubtedly, there are many reasons for this. However, if there is an exit from the stock market along with increasing deposit interest rates, there may be a slowdown in the interest in public offerings. “We do not have such an expectation, but we have to be ready for anything while regulating the market,” he said.

Stating that they have nearly 100 IPO applications on their desks, Gönül said, “Companies are in a hurry to make these IPO applications as soon as possible. But when we make a public offering, we do not only look at the completion of the file. We also look at factors such as whether the company can meet the required conditions and whether the market can meet this demand. Sometimes it is necessary to slow down IPOs. “Let’s say if you make an average of 50 IPOs now, you need to predict how much you can make next year.” he said.

Gönül said, “There are already applications, wouldn’t you say let’s make 80-90 applications instead of 50?” He answered the question: “We can’t do it, it would be too much. In other words, we look at the situation and conjuncture of the market in public offering. We don’t want a failed IPO either. Sometimes it may not be a good idea to go public too quickly. Therefore, it looks like we will continue with the current numbers. In other words, just because there are 100 applications, 100 public offerings will not be approved next year. “This year we will complete around 50, next year we will look at the demand and evaluate it accordingly.”

Emphasizing that another important issue for them is the size of the public offering, Gönül said, “One of the largest public offerings was made with 6.8 billion liras. There are also larger IPOs pending. There was 2.5 times the demand for the 6.8 billion lira public offering. These are indicators for us. We do not experience demand problems in small supplies. “Equal distribution, especially to individual investors, balances the demand, but we need to observe these very carefully for adults.” made his assessment.

Increasing public offerings have brought about a new trend in Turkey. Many people who have not been investors in the stock market before turn to these companies, thinking that publicly offered companies will go to the top for a while. Warning investors on this issue, Gönül said, “Anyone interested in public offerings should deal with the issue with the logic of a professional investor. In other words, there can be no guarantee that every stock that comes out will hit the ceiling and continue that way. “Every buyer has a seller.” said.

The size and sectors of publicly offered companies in Turkey are also a matter of debate from time to time. Underlining that the CMB does not have the luxury of saying “we will offer this sector to the public, we will not do that”, Gönül said, “We look at the structure of the incoming company. We’ll see if it has a story, if it has hope for the future, and if it meets the necessary conditions. Then we present it to investors.” said.

Gönül responded to the question of whether their future attitude in the approval processes would be more encouraging or cautious in this context by saying, “Caution is the basis in our principles, we have always been a cautious institution, and from now on, we will continue to be cautious and cautious.” he replied.

‘My friend told me, I bought it’

While the stock market trend in Turkey led thousands of people without basic investment knowledge to turn to this field, this situation also increased the complaints to the CMB.

Referring to examples on this subject, Gönül said, “For example, it says ‘the index is rising, my shares have fallen.’ Now, you have to look at it from an investor’s perspective. You need to look at the news flow, technical and fundamental analysis. So, if you say, “I will put in my money and the state will give a guarantee,” you will go and buy bonds. ‘My friend told me I bought it, I lost money, who will pay?’

“Until you misspell the name of that stock while complaining about the stock to us, until you buy the wrong stock because its code is similar and ask for your money back from us… For this, we say ‘get help from professionals’.” he said.

Gönül, while touching on his work on large movements that occur due to large volume transactions from time to time, said: “We follow all the developments closely and look at them all. We work together with the stock exchange here. But sometimes they try to create a certain perception on social media.

“If there is something, we look at it one by one, we look at the stocks that rise too much, those that fall too much, and those that are constantly horizontal.” said.