Dr Umut Kolcuoğlu > Kolcuoglu Demirkan Koçakli > Istanbul, Turkey > Lawyer Profile

Dr Umut Kolcuoğlu

+902123559900 ukolcuoglu@kolcuoglu.av.tr

Work Department

Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate and Commercial, Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Competition Law

Position

Managing Partner

Dr. Umut Kolcuoğlu has diverse experience and comparative knowledge in a wide range of M&A, finance and capital market transactions, as well as international commercial dispute resolution. He has represented leading private equities, multinational and local corporations, financial institutions and borrowers (such as Vitol, Cosco Group, QTerminals, team.blue, Likewize Corp., Glencore, ORIX Corporation, UTC Aerospace (Goodrich Corporation), TPI Composites, Talanx Group, VHV Group, BMS Group, Otto Group, Hugo Boss, Bunzl, Deloitte, Siemens, Hyundai Motor Company, Turkven Private Equity, Mediterra Capital, İş Private Equity, Brightstar Capital Partners, Bain Capital, Southeast Europe Equity Fund II, MIC Capital, Argus Capital, Bedminster Capital, Boyner Holding, Koç Holding, Doğan Holding, Sedes/Sabancı Group, TURK Elektronik Para, iyzico, Hedef Filo and Sesa Packaging) acting in numerous sectors, including financial services, energy, infrastructure, insurance, retail, aerospace, automotive, electronics and pharmaceuticals. Umut also acts as expert witness in international arbitration proceedings involving corporate and commercial disputes between Turkish and international parties. He leads the Firm’s German desk. Aside from his legal practice, Umut serves as an independent board member of various companies.

In recent years, Umut advised Vitol, one of the world’s largest energy companies, on its acquisition of Petrol Ofisi, Turkey’s leading fuel products distributor, from OMV AG for USD 1.45 billion; Sedes Holding on its sale of a majority stake in Gratis to Actera Partners II L.P.; and iyzico, Turkey’s market leader in payment services, its shareholders and eight institutional investors, including IFC, Vostok, Amadeus and Pahicle, on the sale of a majority stake to MIH PayU B.V. He further advised QTerminals, a leading Qatar-based terminal operating company, on its acquisition of Port Akdeniz; team.blue on several acquisitions of Turkey’s outstanding hosting and domain name registration service providers; MIC Capital Management 39 RSC Ltd, a fund owned by Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala, in connection with its investment in Getir B.V. by way of share subscription. He recently advised TURK Elektronik Para, a licensed e-money institution, on the share subscription by institutional investors, i.e., EBRD, CEECAT Capital, Alpha Associates and Revo Capital and advised HDI Insurance, one of Turkey’s leading insurance companies and a Talanx AG subsidiary, on its acquisition of a majority stake in Fiba Emeklilik ve Hayat, a prominent life insurance and pension company in Turkey.

He has handled restructurings and finance transactions involving leading banks, borrowers, financial institutions, funds and other public and private companies, such as Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, EBRD, FMS Wertmanagement, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Bank of Ireland, Barwa Bank, İşBank, XTB, HBK Investments, AIG Insurance, Wittur, Samsung C&T Corporation and Putzmeister. He has led the KDK team in the financial restructuring (under the German Financial Market Stabilization Fund Act) of the Turkish component of a portfolio of loans, securities, derivative instruments and other assets and liabilities, having a nominal amount of EUR 173 billion and was the largest transaction of its kind.

Career

Umut is the Firm’s founder and managing partner. He was an associate lawyer in a major Istanbul-based law firm between 1998 and 2000 and again between 2003 and 2005. He was seconded to and worked with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, New York in 2002. He also worked as a foreign associate with German law firm, Hengeler Mueller, in Frankfurt, between 2005 and 2006 and, subsequently, founded the Firm in 2007.

He is a columnist for Turkey’s leading economy newspapers, Nasıl Bir Ekonomi Gazetesi (https://www.ekonomim.com) and TR Monitor (https://www.trmonitor.net/) where he writes a column on business and commercial law matters. He is the author of “Mandatory Tender Offers in Capital Market Law,” (Vedat Publications, April 2009).

Languages

English, German, Turkish

Memberships

Board Member of Boyner Holding; Member of the Board of Trustees of Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation; Advisory Board Member of Istanbul Bilgi University School of Law; New York Bar Association; Istanbul Bar Association; International Bar Association (IBA); Turkish Corporate Governance Association (TKYD); Turkish-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TBCCI); German-Turkish Chamber of Industry (AHK)

Education

Istanbul University School of Law (Ph.D. in Corporate Law and Capital Market Law, 2009); New York University School of Law (LL.M. in Corporate Law, 2001); Istanbul University School of Law (LL.B.,1998); Sankt Georg Austrian High School (1994).