FOCUSING ON PROVIDING STRONG VALUE ADDED SOLUTIONS TO ITS CUSTOMERS IRRESPECTIVE OF THE MARKET CONDITIONS, İŞ LEASING REACHED ITS TARGETS IN 2018.
ADDED VALUE
Dear stakeholders,
Before presenting for your review and approval, the annual report, financial statements and profit distribution proposal, which provide a summary of the 2018 performance of İş Leasing and which have been prepared in accordance with the Capital Market Law and applicable legislation, I would like to give an overview of the world and national economy, and make a brief assessment of the leasing sector, and the position of İş Leasing.
As growth in developed economies continued at different paces in 2018, risks with potential to impact the global economy in a negative way have increased during the last six months of the year.
Geopolitical tensions in various parts of the world, primarily in the Middle East, global trade wars, rapid deterioration in the outlook of developed markets, frequently changing money and fiscal policies are among the major factors which may have unfavorable impacts on global financial markets. This signals for a slowdown in growth and a potential for short term fluctuations in some markets in 2019. Hence, IMF has lowered the growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 on the grounds of increasing protective trade measures, declining economic activities due to country-specific circumstances in some countries, tightening financial conditions and rising oil prices. IMF estimates global economic growth in 2018-2019 period to be in line with 2017 and stabilized at a rate of 3.7%.
Increasing protective trend in foreign trade was remarkable in 2018.
USA government has put protective measures in foreign trade on its agenda and took substantial steps in 2018. Tariffs levied on many products imported from China to USA had been reciprocated by retaliatory tariffs by China. On the other hand, similar problems were encountered between USA and EU. Extension of foreign trade tensions into 2019 is among possibilities and is likely to have significant impacts on global economy.
Turkish economy slowed down in the second half of 2018.
Turkish economy recorded a strong growth performance of 7.2% and 5.3% in the first two quarters of 2018, respectively. However, the impact of rapid depreciation of TL on companies’ balance sheets, tightened financial conditions and increase in interest rates caused a downward pressure on economic activity. Severe fluctuations in domestic financial markets in the third quarter caused a slowdown of the economy while the expansion trend in the current deficit slowed down with the sudden increase in foreign exchange rates and in the third quarter of the year growth rate was down to 1.6%. Inflation rates have reached striking levels mainly due to the impact of depreciation in TL at an increasing pace on input costs. In the last months of the year, developments in Turkey’s international relations, decrease in oil prices due to supply-side movements and expectation of fewer interest hikes by Fed had positive effects on TL assets.
Overall expectation for 2019 is a relative slowdown in growth performance in Turkish economy; however a relative recovery trend in the second half of the year is being anticipated. Fight against inflation, stability in monetary markets, momentum in exports, continuing structural reforms, increasing tourism revenues as well as international conjuncture will be among the determinants of future growth performance.
2018 was a successful year for İş Leasing.
Focusing on providing strong value added solutions to its customers irrespective of the market conditions, İş Leasing reached its targets in 2018.
With decreasing transaction volumes around USD 5 billion in leasing sector in 2018, our company continued its strong support to real sector. İş Leasing used its growth, leveraged by its healthy financial structure, in a careful manner and decisively supported the growth of industries which create added value, particularly SMEs.
Our company will carry on evaluating the opportunities provided by the market in a way to protect the assets of all stakeholders by taking risk-sensitive, cautious, planned and systematic actions.
İş Leasing will continue to support the growth of real economy by using its financial capital as well as its reputation and human resources at appropriate scales.
We believe the following period will provide growth opportunities for İş Leasing and our industry.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and myself, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our stakeholders who contributed to our 2018 performance.
Murat Bilgiç
Chairman of the Board of Directors
