Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley sent notification to some of GİSAD’s global customers, requesting the companies pay the bank directly instead of GİSAD. Some of GİSAD’s customers are said to have complied with the notice and made their payments directly to Morgan Stanley.. .”Morgan Stanley wanted to create much chaos. But, they were left empty handed. No global brands responded to the banks call. Our Turkish partners had receivables worth $405 million. They have managed to collect $402.5 million of that amount from Morgan Stanley,” said GİSAD chairman İbrahim Özdoğan.. .GİSAD has filed a civil suit for damages against Morgan Stanley. The company claims the bank had no substantial legal base to recall the loan it had provided before it matured. GİSAD expects to collect the 200 million euros if the court decides in its favor. GİSAD was established in 1997 with 49 shareholders from the textile and garment industry. ..Today, it has become a foreign trade company encompassing not only the textile and garment industry, but also all of the exporters in the country. It has grown into a giant corporation of 200 shareholders and more than 850 members. GİSAD works as a mediator for 16 percent of Turkey’s textile and ready-wear exports. ..The company builds bridges between Turkish and global companies. In return, GİSAD keeps 1 percent of the production companies’ tax returns. The company implements an annual export volume of $2.4 billion. If the global companies had listened to Morgan Stanley’s call, GİSAD would not have been able to collect its receivables and would be in distress, which would affect its shareholders, members and other suppliers that work with the company. GİSAD signed three deals with Morgan Stanley, said Özdoğan. One was the loan worth 100 million euros, the second was a factoring deal worth 159 million Turkish Liras and the third was medium-term-bond issue, said Özdoğan. ..GİSAD has no unpaid debts to Morgan Stanley, he said. “Our ill-fortune was the global economic crisis,” he said. “GİSAD sent a written statement on Jan. 29 to Morgan Stanley objecting to the loan recall. The company also sent a written statement on Feb. 3 to the bank’s lawyers in Germany,” said Özdoğan. The conflict has not been resolved yet, he said. ..The conflict, however, did not create any further trouble for Turkish shareholders in collecting the receivables. They were able to collect $402.5 million out of the total $405 million receivables. After this conflict is resolved, GİSAD has plans to continue on its path by opening a new foreign trade company. “GİSAD plays a very important role for textile and ready-wear companies. It has substantial expertise in the sector. We want to once again provide service for the industry.”……

Date:5/11/2009

Source:Hurriyet