Turkey's energy giant to make $1B investment

ANKARA

Turkish energy company Polat Energy is set to make additional investments worth $1 billion soon, company head Adnan Polat said Friday.

Polat Energy is one of the largest investors on wind power in Turkey.

The company made the decision to increase its investments in wake of the July 15 coup attempt, which was defeated by ordinary Turkish people.

Polat said the Fetullah Terrorist Organization’s aim was to block everything in the country, including economic activities through such heinous acts. He said the best way to fight the organization was by making more investments in the country.

“An energy investment worth $1 billion is being planned, which will be completed in two years by Polat Energy in collaboration with its foreign partners, EDF, the world's biggest electricity producer, and PSP Investments, one of Canada’s largest pension investment fund,” he said, adding the investments would begin within a month after some paperwork gets done.

He said the aim is to push Soma Wind Power Plant to the top of the list of largest wind power plants.

“We will make the Soma Wind Power Plant [WPP] the biggest WPP in Europe and the fifth biggest in the world with an additional investment of 371 megawatts capacity,” Polat said.

Power plants operated by the Polat Group in collaboration with the Demirer Group have an installed capacity of 1,100 megawatts already.

“If the government makes necessary regulations, we plan to invest an additional 2,000 megawatts, worth $2 billion, until 2023. We will have made investments worth of $3.5 billion by then,” he said.

Polat noted the company will also participate in a campaign launched by Emlak Konut GYO and GYODER, an association of real estate investment companies, aimed at supporting economic activity in wake of the defeated coup.

Highlighting that investing in housing rather than gold or foreign exchange was more profitable, he said no real estate investors in Turkey had ever suffered losses.

“This is a great opportunity for citizens and I call them to utilize this benefit as it is not something they can bump into frequently,” he said.

The campaign, limited till end of August, enables people to pay almost 20 percent less as it reduces the percentage of down payment from 25 percent to 20 percent and 10-year home loan rate from 1.08 percent to 0.7 percent.