Esteemed Business Partners, Colleagues and Shareholders,

Demonstrating rapid growth thanks to financial market liberalization for some years, the global economy faced various challenges in 2019. These included trade wars between the USA and China ongoing since 2018, fluctuating capital markets due to the Fed’s monetary policies and the impact of the Brexit process in the Eurozone. After the IMF continually revised down its growth forecasts throughout the year, the world economy expanded by 2.9% as of year-end 2019. With the Covid-19 outbreak in December in the city of Wuhan, China, a global pandemic took hold and spread with great speed. This unfolding crisis has had a significant impact on the growth performance of the global economy and the world order. Intensive aircraft traffic, urbanization, and increasing interaction between communities around the world have been among the most important indicators of global economic growth over the last 20 years. However, these same factors appear to have accelerated the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to serious questions regarding the course of the post-pandemic world economy. At Borusan Holding, we believe that the global economy and the international community will learn important lessons from this challenging period. Economic activity and wealth generation will return. We expect that the Covid-19 pandemic will present opportunities to create a better world over the long term, despite the many short-term challenges.

Turkey: Sound economic fundamentals and social unity

After facing multidimensional challenges, such as foreign exchange rate shocks, inflation and rising geopolitical risks, Turkey was regaining growth momentum in the second half of 2019, thanks to rebalancing steps implemented across the economy. Taking hold in the last month of the year, the Covid-19 pandemic had a destructive impact on the global economy. This critical health crisis also seriously rocked Turkey’s macro-economic balance.

By capitalizing on its strategic advantages in food production and healthcare manufacturing in addition to its robust social ties, Turkey has managed to blunt the extreme impacts of the pandemic, which has morphed into a crisis with multiple dimensions. Although there is no clear global exit strategy on when the outbreak will come to an end, Turkey has limited the effects the crisis by implementing new responsive measures on every front. At Borusan Group, we sincerely believe that we will endure this crisis, which underscores the importance of domestic production, with minimum damage. With our significant experience and expertise in diverse lines of business, we are committed to doing our part to ensure that Turkey emerges from this multipronged crisis. In addition to our strong corporate foundations, I would like to indicate once again to our stakeholders that we strongly believe in the bright future of our country.

Turkey’s reassuring industry group

Borusan Holding is a global industry group with expertise in steel, machinery and power systems, automotive distributorship, energy and logistics. In 2019, we recorded successful financial and operational results while maintaining stakeholder trust with our professional approach to risk management. We have proudly served as the change and innovation leader, upholding our corporate values since our founding in 1944. Thanks to its ongoing digital transformation investments, Borusan Holding achieved successful outcomes in 2019 by effectively coordinating its operations and human resources in various countries across the world. We consistently create sustainable value in all our business lines with our human capital focused on continuous improvement in addition to our innovation-oriented management approach. During the year, our Group once again demonstrated its agility in evaluating risks and opportunities. We are keenly aware that the multidimensional crisis environment created by the Covid-19 pandemic will require new roles and actions for the private sector. Currently, we are taking steps to speed up our decision-making processes across our organization in the coming period in line with our mission and vision.

Borusan’s experience and expertise will leave its mark on centuries to come

Borusan Group represents 76 years of experience and expertise in the industry sector. With our deep experience, we plan to be operating two centuries from now. Every time we face significant challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, we return to our foundations and our mission, refreshing our energy and renewing our belief in a bright future. We are committed to creating sustainable value in all lines of business and geographies where we operate.

I would like to thank all our employees, business partners and customers for their support in our achievements in 2019, which was a challenging period in every sense. We hope to share the pride and happiness of even greater successes in the future.

Kind regards,

Ahmet Kocabıyık
Chairperson
Borusan Holding