Turkish Capital Markets Board: Foreign Documents

A foreign investment fund whose units are to be sold in Türkiye must be registered with the Capital Markets Board (SPK). The Board's guidance sets out what the fund must show from its home country and what has to be prepared in Turkish.

Conditions for registration

The Board lists conditions for registering foreign fund units. Among them, the issuer must have obtained permission from the competent authority in its own country for the sale of the units; where portfolio management is provided by another institution, that institution must hold a portfolio management licence in its country; and the fund's competent body must give the Board an undertaking to provide all information and documents the Board requests, including those for public disclosure. For a public offering in Türkiye, the units must also have been offered to the public in the fund's home country.

The fund must have a representative in Türkiye, with a written agreement covering at least the matters the Board specifies. The Board may ask the competent authority of the fund's home country for its opinion on the fund and its managers.

Applications and documents in Turkish

Institutions wishing to register foreign fund units apply to the Board with the prescribed petition and form and the information and documents listed in its annex. For a sale, with or without a public offering, the representative applies for approval of the prospectus with the prospectus, the key investor information form and the application form.

The prospectus must be prepared in Turkish, in enough detail to disclose clearly the information the legislation and the Board require, signed by the representative and the fund's officers, with statements backed by documents where needed. Financial statements, the independent audit report and other periodic reports prepared under the fund's home legislation and international accounting standards are published on the Public Disclosure Platform in the original with Turkish summaries.

The Board's guidance we quote does not mention an apostille. We translate fund documents into Turkish in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary. The Board decides on registration.