Closing a Turkish acquisition does not finish the work. It only changes who now owns the problem set. In the first 90 days, the buyer has to align registry powers, bank mandates, tax access, supplier handovers, and management reporting before small gaps harden into daily friction. The official Invest in Türkiye guide says foreign investors have the same rights and liabilities as local investors and that share-transfer conditions are the same. That opens the door. It does not integrate the company for you.
This is why post-closing integration should be treated as an operating file, not a ceremonial handover. If the buyer already used Corpenza's pieces on legal due diligence, tax due diligence, and share purchase versus asset purchase, this is the next step. Those articles explain how risk is identified. Integration is where that risk is either contained or allowed to spread.
What should happen in the first week after closing?
In the first week, the buyer should create one integration pack with one owner. That file should show who can sign, which passwords and tokens matter, what deadlines are near, which suppliers still speak to the former owner, and where the first management decisions will be made.
The work sounds ordinary because it is ordinary. That is exactly why teams postpone it. Start with the share-transfer documents, the board or manager resolutions, the signatory list used by banks and counterparties, the accounting handover timetable, and the contact map for the top customers and suppliers. Then mark the items that still depend on the seller. A good first-week list is short, blunt, and ugly. Fancy project plans can come later.
If the deal included a staged signing and closing sequence, keep the legal control line clean. Integration planning can start before closing, but operational control should move only when the deal documents and approvals actually allow it. That discipline matters more in Turkey deals than many buyers expect, because local banking, registry, and customer-facing authority often still sits with named individuals rather than an abstract group mailbox.
Which registry and authority records should be aligned first?
The official corporate record comes first. The buyer should reconcile the target's current shareholding, management, branches, and signatory story against the Trade Registry and MERSIS before assuming the company is ready for business-as-usual. If the record is messy, every downstream handover becomes slower.
The Ministry of Trade states on its Trade Registry page that the trade registry is a state register covering the information and records of traders and commercial enterprises, and that those registered records are public. The same page says registry transactions are carried out through MERSIS. That is the practical reason the buyer should test the official record early. If the file in the data room says one thing and the registry says another, banks, auditors, payroll advisers, and counterparties will eventually follow the registry trail.
Do not stop at the shareholder line. Check branch records, address data, manager or board appointments, and who is expected to sign externally. In many Turkish files, nobody notices the weak point until a bank update, a customer KYC request, or a supplier amendment lands on the wrong desk. By then, the buyer is already losing time.
How should finance, tax, and bank access be handed over?
Finance handover is not a single folder transfer. The buyer needs working control over online banking, payment approvals, accounting files, tax correspondence, ledger ownership, invoice flow, and whoever actually closes the month. If these remain split between buyer, seller, and old advisers, the company looks acquired but does not behave acquired.
Start with banking. Test who can approve payments, who receives security codes, who can add or remove signatories, and whether the bank still expects the former owner to appear for KYC refreshes. Then move to the accounting side. Confirm which firm or employee keeps the ledger, where source documents are stored, how payroll files are delivered, and who answers authority notices. The point is not just to keep bookkeeping alive. The point is to make sure the first post-closing month-end can be explained without the seller sitting in the room.
This is also where the buyer should separate cash from usable cash. If tax, payroll, or supplier balances are unresolved, the bank balance can look healthier than the business really is. That is why the first integration review should sit beside the earlier tax diligence workstream rather than treating it as something finished at signing.
How should teams handle approvals, carve-outs, or staged control transfer?
Where a deal had merger-control analysis, sector approvals, or a carved-out business perimeter, integration should follow the signed control map, not management impatience. Buyers can prepare systems early, but they should not behave as if control transferred before the legal and approval line is crossed.
The Competition Authority's 11 February 2026 update says the single threshold moved to TL 1 billion, the Türkiye turnover threshold moved to TL 3 billion, and the global turnover threshold moved to TL 9 billion, with a distinct TL 250 million test for certain technology undertakings based in Türkiye. And Article 7 of Act No. 4054 covers acquisitions of assets, partnership shares, or instruments conferring executive rights where they may significantly lessen effective competition. The integration lesson is simple. If the deal structure or approval path drew a line between planning and control, the post-closing team should respect that line in process design, data access, and external communication.
This is where buyers often overreach. They start centralizing procurement, moving customers, or combining decision-making before the file is operationally stable. That creates avoidable noise. A Turkish integration runs better when authority, access, and customer messaging move in the same order as the closing mechanics.
What should be done with contracts, employees, and suppliers?
Contracts and people should be triaged fast. In the first month, the buyer should sort counterparties into three groups: relationships that continue quietly, relationships that need notice, and relationships that need consent, new KYC, or management attention. The same approach works for employees and key suppliers.
For customers and suppliers, focus first on the accounts that drive cash or production continuity. Read any change-of-control clause, exclusivity term, rebate logic, or personal-signature practice that could slow operations. For employees, map who approves leave, who signs employment documents, who runs payroll inputs, and who the staff still treat as the real escalation point. In a founder-led Turkish company, the formal organization chart can look tidy while the practical control still sits with one person and one phone.
Do not underestimate document access. Shared drives, invoicing tools, ERP roles, procurement email addresses, and contract archives can be harder to transfer than the share certificate. The cleanest integration files are rarely the most technical ones. They are the ones where someone asked the obvious question early: what would stop trading next Tuesday if the seller never picked up the phone again?
What does a practical 30-60-90 day integration plan look like?
A workable 30-60-90 plan keeps the company boring on purpose. Days 1 to 30 should stabilize authority and access. Days 31 to 60 should clean finance, contracts, and counterparties. Days 61 to 90 should move the business onto the buyer's reporting rhythm without breaking what still works locally.
| Window | Main focus | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1-30 | Authority and access | Registry story, bank signatories, accounting owner, seller dependencies, top customer contacts |
| Days 31-60 | Commercial and finance clean-up | Contract notices, payroll flow, supplier handovers, management pack format, open tax or cash questions |
| Days 61-90 | Operating rhythm | Monthly close calendar, approval matrix, local versus central decisions, unresolved transition items |
One point matters here. The buyer should not centralize everything at once just because the deal has closed. If the Turkish company still depends on a local signing pattern, a local bank relationship, or a founder-level supplier bridge, phase the change. Integration should reduce fragility, not create a heroic week of internal chaos.
What usually goes wrong after buying a Turkish company?
The common failures are not dramatic. Nobody owns the integration file. The bank still follows the seller. One supplier still sends invoices to the old address. The management team thinks the accountant has the tax notices covered. The accountant thinks the buyer's CFO has them. Then a small operational gap becomes a month of friction.
A second mistake is treating the post-closing period as if every issue is strategic. Most integration delays are not strategic. They are administrative. They sit in signature rights, access control, contract notices, and unclear reporting lines. That is why the most effective post-acquisition plan is usually calmer than buyers expect. It assigns owners early, keeps the timeline short, and deals with unglamorous tasks before redesigning the business.
FAQ
Does integration start only after the closing date?
No. Planning should begin before closing. But operational control should move only in line with the signed documents and the approval path.
What is the first integration document the buyer should create?
A single handover file listing signatories, access owners, deadlines, seller dependencies, and the first month-end responsibilities.
Why does the trade registry matter so much after an acquisition?
Because counterparties and advisers eventually rely on the official record. If the register story and the operating story drift apart, the buyer inherits that friction immediately.
What is the most common post-closing mistake?
Assuming the seller's informal control points will quietly disappear on their own. They usually do not.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. If you are integrating a newly acquired Turkish company, Corpenza's company formation and accounting team can help structure the handover and the first 90-day control map.
