What happened in the IPO
Two months before Tera Yatirim Menkul Degerler AS landed at the center of a historic Turkish fund scandal, it led the banks on SA-RA Enerji Insaat's IPO. Pricing was set at 70 liras a share on July 17, raising 6.23 billion lira, or $127 million.
According to a regulatory filing, Norges Bank Investment Management - manager of Norway's sovereign wealth fund - acquired roughly 5.2% of the shares, which put it ahead of other institutions participating in the sale. The setup points to NBIM's outside stock pickers working with Tera almost right up to the broader fund-industry meltdown. It is unclear if NBIM still holds the position, as the fund reports holdings only twice a year and the latest snapshot covered June 30, before the collapse.
How the stock moved after listing
SA-RA's debut was a roller coaster. The shares rose 77% across their first full week, hitting the 10% daily ceiling each session, then reversed the next week with limit-down drops every day. Since then, the shares have traded up to 50% under the IPO price and set a record intraday low on Thursday.
The company, based in Ankara and founded in 1985, makes power transmission lines and substations. It hasn't been named in the recent stock-manipulation probe and did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Links between NBIM and the broader probe
The IPO was not NBIM's only exposure to names later swept up in the investigation. By June 30, the fund's positions totaled nearly 2 billion kroner ($208 million) across 10 Turkish firms that are currently tied to the probe, an amount equal to roughly 10% of its equity holdings in the country. That included stakes in Tera Yatirim Menkul Degerler (0.12%) and an affiliated firm, Tera Yatirim Teknoloji Holding AS (0.32%).
In July, NBIM added Istanbul-based Neo Asset Management as a Turkish equity manager and engages New York-based TRG Management as well. Spokespeople for both firms would not comment on the SA-RA stake. Last year, regulators sanctioned a senior partner at the firm for creating a misleading picture about supply, demand, and pricing in two cement shares, after which NBIM cut its relationship with Istanbul Portfoy Yonetimi.
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What officials are saying and what to watch
According to Turkish prosecutors, investment funds run by Tera and other firms drove certain thinly traded shares up by nearly 100 times. In Tera's situation, a large share of the implicated companies were those its brokerage had brought to market. Authorities have widened the probe to review IPO processes, zeroing in on firms that were added to fund portfolios after they went public and then soared to exceptional heights.
Turkey's market watchdog said Thursday that Tera Yatirim's activities have been halted. Authorities took into custody Emre Tezmen, the firm's founder and chairman, as well as two board members and additional executives. Tezmen says he has done nothing wrong.
NBIM declined to discuss specific holdings. "We invest through external managers in emerging markets," a spokesperson said. "This is a strategy that has been very profitable for us." Norway's Finance Ministry, the body in charge of the wealth fund, likewise declined to comment.
For everyday investors, the backdrop is a reminder that even massive, diversified pools of money can run into trouble spots when local markets overheat, especially where stock picking runs through external managers.
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