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Goldaş fought well in 2008...
As a year with extensive turmoil, 2008 has left its place to 2009, which seemingly will be much tougher.
The global crisis in 2008 not only had a deep impact in Turkey and the World, but also left deep traces on anyone. Goldaş has concluded 2008 with 3,240 million TL turnover and total assets in 649 million TL value.
Although 2009 is promising to be tough, we firmly believe that we will get through this process in a more powerful and dynamic state as a courtesy of our effective measures.
Taking off in the US mortgage market and having traumatic effects worldwide, the global crisis has left a strong mark on 2008. The world’s leading banks have become history, big economies went into recession. The mortgage loans in the US have reached 10 trillion US Dollars. It was known that approx. 1.4 trillion US Dollars of that amount consisted of high risk mortgage products.
Approximately 40 per cent of the said loans were in the portfolios of European banks such as UK, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland in particular. Consequently, the crisis did not restrict itself to USA, but went over to Europe in no time. Although the monetary value of the measures taken worldwide up till now are over 15 trillion USD, no positive effects of such packages are felt in the market yet. When considering combined real estate, stocks and bonds markets in the USA, a loss amounting to nearly 12 trillion US Dollars is present and such loss is still in progress, resulting in approx. 50 trillion USD losses worldwide. The credibility related crisis in the markets is also threatening the global trade. According to the recent predictions of the World Trade Organization, the expected shortage in the worldwide trade in 2009 is 9 percent.
This is the biggest constriction since the big crisis in the 1930’s. At this point, governments and central banks are spending tremendous efforts to intervene the crisis and reducing its impact by means of providing more flexible financial policies and decreasing interest rates. Consequently, we propose that remedy of the huge losses will not be immediate, but revival will occur in gradually.
However, we also consider a crisis that is not yet perceived in Europe at its full state, would become deeper upon IMF’s revision on its growth predictions for Europe to -5.5% from -2.5%. Still, I can assure that with the current and future measures as well as a structure where a global collaboration is resolute, we are closer to the end than the beginning of the crisis…
As of October 2008, the Turkish Central Bank has begun to gradually decrease interest rates in the local market while the government has also made a step towards market revival through the tax reductions declared. Export figures went down by the effects of the foreign economies’ constriction and import figures have also decreased due to recession in the local investment and consumption demands. As a result of the oil and raw material rates going down, the current account deficit as the soft belly of the Turkish economy will also decrease during 2009. Another impact of the crisis would be the fall in inflation rates, yet, the increased unemployment.
Since considered as a secure investment instrument in the crisis environment and along with the increasing gold prices, the effects of gold purchase for investment purposes have also improved. As in all major stock exchanges worldwide, 2008 has also been a lost year for the Istanbul Stock Exchange. With 36.2% decrease this year, the US Dow Jones Index approached the 51.7% annual downfall back in the 1931 crisis. S&P 500 Index also underwent an annual loss of 40%, demonstrating the worst performance during the period following 1937.
Losing value at 51.6% during the past year, the Istanbul Stock Exchange ranked 7th among Stock Exchanges incurring a loss to its investors. Despite of this, demonstrating a superior performance during the first quarter, Goldaş stocks which raised at 19.73% during the period between January 2 and March 14, 2008 while the Istanbul Stock Exchange National 100 Index lost 22.16% during the same time frame, later lost value due to the unfounded accusations of the French Bank Société Générale, which were also confirmed to be unjust by the Turkish Courts. During this period where we have won the cases against us and our rightfulness is proven, I would like assure you, our esteemed investors, that we are spending all of our efforts for the compensation of our losses and reparation of the damages arising from this incident, in both national and international legal platforms.
In spite of the global crisis, we have preserved our continued leadership in the retail sector with our Goldaş, Assortie and other brands in our portfolio and have increased the number of our stores from 2007 and concluded 2008 with 117 stores in total together with the local and international stores of Goldaş and Assortie.
We continue to export our products to 45 countries across 5 continents. We maintain our local and overseas fields of activity where our group companies are represented in the USA, UK, Germany, Russia, UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong and China. The brand Goldaş has contributed a great deal to the growth in the export volume of our representatives.
It is our goal to conclude 2009 in a more productive manner despite the global crisis by means of rendering our brand even more powerful, increasing the efficiency and performance of our operations and strengthening our distribution network in order to supply our products to a broader, global consumer profile. With the positive signals already emerging from Turkey and the world, we are aiming to become an active participant in the sectors we operate in 2010 with our continuously expanding product portfolio and through our brands,
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the employees of Goldaş, who have always been decisively walking ahead towards our objectives with us, to our valued customers, national and international business partners and to our national and international shareholders, who never withhold their confidence and trust to Goldaş.
M. Sedat YALINKAYA
CEO
