Turkrating

Istanbul International Rating Services, Turkrating for short, was founded on 4 July 2006 by eight partners, three of whom are Turkish and five of various nationalities. It is the first national rating agency to be established in Turkey. Local founding partners are professionals from the banking sector and the Turkish Treasury. International founding partners have very long years of experience working for and with rating agencies, particularly in emerging markets. This combination of international experience with local insight gives Turkrating the opportunity to create a unique value in the rating services it will deliver. Our local partners' understanding of local customs and the complexities of the social and political structure of the Turkish business environment, coupled with the wide experience of our international partners in the rating business, gives us confidence that we shall be able to create significant value added to the economy and that we shall be more effective compared to global rating agencies offering services to Turkish obligors.

The sovereign rating ceiling imposed by international rating agencies applying a global scale produces a clustering of ratings in a narrow band on the rating scale. Not being able to adequately differentiate themselves on the basis of their financial strength presents a significant disadvantage to our local corporations. In fact, our country's sovereign rating has remained "below investment grade" or "speculative" for a number of years. We believe that Turkish corporations should have the opportunity of being assessed more fairly by their international business partners. Turkrating will offer national scale ratings that will provide a finer distinction of creditworthiness among national obligors.

We view the independent status of Turkrating as very important to the credibility and quality of its work. None of our partners has any connection with other Turkish entities that could constitute a conflict of interest. In addition, we have adopted a rigorous Code of Conduct to help ensure that our partners, managers and employees avoid potential conflicts, or handle them properly should they arise. Turkrating's mission is to provide independent and objective opinions on the creditworthiness of Turkish obligors and counterparties seeking to access local and international funding sources. The participation of experienced rating analysts in the rating process will allow us to import their know-how and apply it under international best practice.

Research
Company Evaluation Report