About

As an iron and steel producer with a wide international trade network in Turkey and the Balkans, Kurum Holding has been facing tough competition from the aggressive expansion of the Chinese iron-steel industry. Led by group legal counsel Uğur Ateş, the legal team persuaded the executive board, which Ateş sits on, to apply to court for restructuring the company’s debts in order to remain competitive in a challenging time. Successfully gaining a restructuring proceeding, the company now enjoys protection from the court and was also able to restructure its debts by negotiating with creditors under the observation of the court. In a bet-the-company refinancing, Ateş believes that ‘if we did not take this step, the company would have already been bankrupted. Therefore, I think our move has changed the entire fate of our company’. Cementing the legal department’s position as one of the key departments of the company, Ateş reports directly to the group CEO, and the team as whole manage frequent legislative changes in three jurisdictions simultaneously.