Page 8 - Annual Report 2019

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF BOARD

Esteemed Shareholders, Business Partners and Distinguished Employees,

NUROL Holding has been carrying out its operations unabated in a variety of sectors, including those devoted to
construction and contracting, defence, mining, advanced technologies, real estate investment, finance, tourism,
energy, trade and services, both at home and abroad, taking advantage of the superior high-quality brand that we
have created based on our half-century of experience and knowledge. Our primary objective, shared by close to 40
subsidiaries, affiliates, branches and project partnerships, and around 15,000 employees, is to make maximum use
of our capacity, and to create jobs and value added for the national economy, while efficiently managing our risks
through a balanced portfolio. We have been carrying out operations in Turkey in a manner appropriate to NUROL’s
reputation since our establishment, while taking care to undertake successful projects abroad and represent our
country in the best possible manner, without compromise to our universal values.

We have made it our mission to contribute to the efforts to ensure our country catches up with the rising level of
prosperity, while playing a leading role and setting a good example to society in all of the corporate and social
responsibility and sponsorship projects in which we have been involved. We believe that it will be more meaningful for
our companies to achieve sustainable growth by functioning not only as profit oriented centres, but also as institutions
that add value to the lives of our social stakeholders while protecting the environment. We consider it a priority to leave
a liveable world for future generations and to meticulously carry out our operations in all fields in which we are engaged.

Economic developments at a glance:
As I am sure you are aware, the adverse effects of the economic contraction were observed in all sectors following
the economic recession in the last quarter of 2018 that carried over into the first couple of months of 2019. While
the Turkish economy grew by 6 percent over the last quarter of 2019 when compared to the corresponding period
in the preceding year, annual growth was only 0.9%. The US$/TL exchange rate, which dwindled to TL 5.32 in
February 2019, closed the year at TL 5.95. Throughout the year, investments continued to decrease due to the
increasing costs of financing, the difficult lending terms, geopolitical risks and the global slowdown. After entering
2020 with such low momentum, global trade, which was already in decline, will continue to shrink significantly as
a result of the coronavirus pandemic that has spread

around the world after first emerging in China. This situation poses a threat to the world that is much greater than
first anticipated. In fact, it has been reported that the 0.4 percent contraction in global trade witnessed in 2019 was
the first major decline observed in the past decade since 2009, when a global crisis was witnessed due in part to
the US-led trade wars.

It is too early to predict how fiscal policies, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation will be shaped in the coming
period, and it remains to be seen what kind of economic transformation will emerge in this period that is rife with
uncertainties. We can say that it will be quite difficult to achieve 5 percent economic growth that the government set for
2020, considering the current circumstances. Unfortunately, the negative developments observed at a global scale
since the beginning of the year indicate that there will be a high exchange rate risk in 2020.

GROUP Companies at a glance;
NUROL Construction’s reference projects include infrastructure projects, highways, expressways, railway and
metro systems, tunnels, gas/oil pipelines and related facilities, irrigation/drainage systems, dams and hydroelectric
power plants, water supply and waste water systems, urban/industrial treatment plants and landfills, turn-key
production plants and industrial complex projects, industrial parks, business and trade centres, high-end/mass
housing and social centres, and the company takes pride in being included on the list of the world’s leading
international contractors. Raising its quality through the innovative technology and business models that it has
developed while carrying out major projects at home, NUROL is successfully representing our country abroad
through projects carried out in close to 20 countries, including Algeria, Morocco, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Qatar,
Georgia, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition,

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