COMPANY INVESTIGATION AND DUE DILIGENCE IN TURKEY
Turkish Public Company Data Policies and Availability
Most countries have structured their company databases properly, and each country offers a different level of publicization policy about company details. For example, researching a UK company is a pleasure for risk analysis, pre-due diligence, and similar efforts, as the United Kingdom Business Registry, Companies House, is one of the best, user-friendly, transparent, and free databases.
However, not all countries take a similar path when it comes to the publicization of company information. The Turkish business registry office provides some level of information on Turkish businesses, which is not the same as others.
The Turkish Trade Registry Gazette is a public database updated by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey – TOBB (Türkiye Odalar ve Borsalar Birliği). It contains official updates pertaining to a number of company details.
Fortunately, this database is free of charge, however, it is not user-friendly and has a number of challenges for researchers. In the Gazette database, no country-wise query is possible, and searches always need to start by selecting the registered regional authority. This essentially forces researchers to make advanced checks online to understand the associated trade registry office name of the subject company.
The Turkish company database indexes only company names, company registration ID, and date of filings. All other company filings are stored in non-searchable PDF documents and copying text from these documents is also not an option other than benefiting from OCR methodologies. To conduct reliable research, all Turkish documents need to be detailed carefully. Identifying company name changes and tracing them is possible but requires expertise on the portal.
Typical data points that exist for most companies in the Turkish business registry can be listed as follows: company title, company type, company status, business address, old address, registry number, tax number, chamber registration number, phone number, capital amount, date of registration, date of main contract, occupational group, NACE code, ownership structure, company manager, owner’s citizenship, owner’s full or partial address, and owner’s full or partial ID number.
The sample company information can be seen in the image below. Depending on the company’s size, history, and conditions, more details are possible. The sample shows the types of company information with the least data.
Gathering Business Information from Turkey Trade Registry Gazette
If you would like to gather information about a Turkish company, visit the Turkish Trade Gazette (Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi) website and open a free account. After logging in, first select the city/office associated with the company. Then, add the company name using Turkish characters to access the company filings
In Türkiye verifying an individual’s affiliations with companies presents significant challenges. This is primarily due to the fact that the Turkish Registry database does not facilitate searches that link individuals to businesses, or in other words, person to company search.
Coninsec is able to gather all registered company associations of a person by facilitating special methodologies that are unique to us. If you ever need enhanced Turkish company research, Coninsec will be pleased to assist you with the best possible and up-to-date solutions.
