Yüksel Açık’s Forbes Middle East Interview!
Forbes Middle East / May 2022
International technology and defense industry pioneer, Açık Holding, leads numerous markets with its innovative products, diverse services, and leading technological development.
Açık Holding is an international technology and defense industry company with operations in telecommunication and information technologies, aviation and defense industry, building industry and operational technologies, and health technologies. Açık Holding has 22 years of expertise in four different industries with 22 companies with over 2,000 employees across Europe, Asia, the USA, and the Middle East. Yüksel Açık, Chairman of Açık Holding, states, “Our main activities are in telecommunication and information technology, which contribute a large portion of the total turnover while the second majority is in aviation and defense industries, accounting for 25% of total turnover. The rest comes from the tourism and health industry.”
These and other operations, such as the company activities in the air conditioning field, ensure that Açık Holding maintains a strong presence in the Middle East. Açık states, “In the UAE, we have close cooperation with an air conditioning company as well as with distributor and producer companies. We also cooperate with the American company TRANE for the UAE market. We have also produced some AC units on an OEM basis for the metro stations in Qatar where all metro stations are being cooled with our units.” In telecommunications, Açık Holding is following in building solutions projects in telecommunication with Vodafone, Oredo, and Erickson Systems in Qatar. These projects are leading to 4G and 5G infrastructure projects in cooperation with operator companies in the UAE.
Without a doubt, Açık Holding’s global presence as an international holding company has created a distinct advantage. “We work globally,” says Açık. “We have real local companies in different countries with 100% shares, not subsidiaries or branches. This is part of our vision because we want to monitor and manage every market from within the country.” Açık’s future strategy is to enhance technological development, foster exponential growth in 2023, and expand into different regions like the Middle East.
Some of Açık Holding’s recent acquisitions include a Turkish company that produces environmental energy monitoring sensors, in addition to UAE-based, which is an automation company that provides services for data center projects. “Any opportunity from any country that gives us the strength to develop our business as partners is welcome,” explains Açık. “We do not only sell products or technology to other parties, but we also use these technologies in projects within our group companies so that we can develop new technologies with the knowledge and experience gained while we are using these technologies in our project.”
The technology drive is well underway, and digitalization is the key to a new industrial and financial revolution. Açık states, “This is the real future target for Türkiye: to digitalize information technologies and telecommunication industries. As a group, we want to apply all these systems in the fields that we work.” With the digital infrastructure in place, now is the time to invest in countries like Türkiye.
Türkiye is a strategic choice for investment due to its proximity to the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the USA, its well-developed infrastructure, low production costs, skilled manpower, and favorable business regulations. “For companies interested in Türkiye, we recommend contacting institutional companies because they should have a common business culture and business approach,” says Açık. “These companies should review their return on investment expectations because Türkiye is already integrated into Europe and our regulations meet European standards.” As a testament to its reliability, Açık Holding adheres to international legal and ethical codes of business. “We always do business correctly and ethically; any partners or investors should also think in the same way. Any company interested in cooperating with Açık Holding should remember that we are an international company. They can trust us.”
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