The global economic crisis, which was more prominent in the last quarter of 2008, had its negative effects on Turkish economy as well. Our group was impacted adversely in this environment, however, only at a limited scale. We were able to generate positive net profits for our group companies even in the last quarter of 2008. More importantly, our overall sales revenues reached the psychological threshold of 1 billion USD.

In 2008, the fourth paper machine (PM4) in Modern Karton Çorlu started its production after finalizing the investment period in the second quarter. This new machine utilizes the most recent technological advancements and it has a production capacity of 400.000 tons per year. Modern Karton, with a total output capacity of 700.000 tons per year, is now accepted as one of the most competitive paper mills in Europe due to its high quality products and low energy consumption. Parallel to this investment, we increased the production capacity of Modern Ambalaj, our packaging company, in its Bursa and Çorlu plants. Also we completed the investment for a new plant in Kayseri and now it is ready for production.

Denizli Çimento is at the final stage of its investment of 30 mio USD towards modernization of its existing equipment. Similarly, our concrete company Modern Beton completed its totally equity based investment of 20 mio USD for launching a quarry and concrete plants in Antalya region.  

In Zonguldak, our investment totaling to 1.6 bio USD in construction of Eren Enerji project, a coal fired power plant with a total capacity of 1360 MW, and Eren Port with a handling capacity of 10 mio tons of dry bulk is continuing at full speed. The necessary financing for this project is supplied by two leading Turkish banks.

To minimize the possible negative effects of the current global economic crisis on our operations we have already taken necessary precautions and we are evaluating the developments closely.

In the recent Lacoste convention organized in Paris on Deecember 15th, 2008, our efforts in Turkey were recognized as one of the most successful operations amongst all international retailing partners for Lacoste products. 

I would like to express my gratitude to all my colleagues who helped us realizing all these successes and achieving all the milestones for our group.  I also take this opportunity to remind all our employees that it will be vital for our group to put a cooperative effort with a positive attitude to minimize the potential negative effects in 2009, which is already forecasted to be an economically challenging year. Finally, I extend my thanks to our business partners for their great support.