Turkish regulator adds a third Tera trading ban as the group's directors resign

Türkiye's Capital Markets Board (SPK) has imposed a third set of two-year trading bans on the brokerage Tera Yatırım Menkul Değerler and the fund manager Tera Portföy Yönetimi in three weeks, this time over trading in shares of Vişne Madencilik, according to a notice on the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) published early on 17 October. The decision, recorded in SPK bulletin 2026/70 of 16 October, also covers 22 individuals and two other companies. Since mid-September directors and senior managers have left three listed Tera group companies, their own filings show.

Three bans, a suspension and a dropped share sale

Each ban rests on Article 101(1) of the Capital Markets Law, which lets the board act against people where there is "makul şüphe" ("reasonable suspicion") that they committed market abuse offences, and is limited to the two firms' own-account trading in the share concerned. The first, in bulletin 2026/65 of 25 September, concerned Özata Denizcilik. The second, in bulletin 2026/66 of 28 September, concerned Tera Finansal Yatırımlar Holding (TRHOL) and came with a decision to file criminal complaints against 37 people under Article 107(1), the law's provision on market fraud through transactions. The names on that list include Emre Tezmen and Emir Münir Sarpyener. A complaint refers a case to prosecutors; it is not a charge.

On 30 September the board suspended Tera Yatırım Menkul Değerler's capital market activities from 18:10 under Article 96(1), and permanently cancelled all licences held by three people it found responsible for unlawful acts at the firm, Sarpyener among them, bulletin 2026/67 shows. Borsa Istanbul moved the brokerage's shares from its main market to the Watchlist Market from 2 October, citing that bulletin, according to an exchange notice.

On 14 October the brokerage said the SPK had removed three pending applications from consideration: a TRY 50 billion private placement of new shares solely to its shareholder Emre Tezmen, filed on 17 March; a TRY 28 billion bonus issue that would have lifted its capital from TRY 700 million to TRY 28.7 billion, an increase of 4,000 per cent; and a request to sell up to TRY 19 billion of debt to qualified investors. The board cited "mevcut koşullar ve belirsizlikler" ("current conditions and uncertainties"), the filing says.

Who has left

• Tera Yatırım Menkul Değerler: director Kerem Alkin, who chaired the audit committee, resigned with effect from 18 September (filing); deputy general managers Ali Sabri Taylan and Evgin Gürbüzer left on 30 September and 1 October (filing, filing); independent director Kadir Boy resigned on 2 October (filing); general manager Sarpyener left on 2 October and later resigned all his posts by a letter dated 5 October (filing, filing); director Abdulkadir Özkan resigned with effect from 12 October (filing).
• Tera Finansal Yatırımlar Holding: Alkin with effect from 18 September, Boy on 2 October and Sarpyener, as a director, with effect from 12 October (filing, filing, filing).
• Tera Yatırım Teknoloji Holding: director Erdin Özel with effect from 22 September, Boy on 2 October, and chief executive and deputy chair Hüseyin Emre Sezer, in post since 24 August, by notarised notice effective 29 September that the company says came to its attention on 5 October (filing, filing, filing).

The group had agreed key terms on 10 September to buy Pusula Finans Holding and its subsidiaries, subject to approval by the SPK, the banking regulator and the competition authority, the brokerage disclosed. On 18 September it said Tezmen and Erkan Kilimci had left the Pusula board before their appointments were registered (filing).

Banks and funds

On 30 September the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board decided that the deposit insurer, the TMSF, would exercise all shareholder rights other than dividends attached to Emre Tezmen's 95 per cent and Oğuz Tezmen's 0.01 per cent of Tera Yatırım Bankası, and ordered the two to sell their 53.01 per cent and 37 per cent of Tera Finans Faktoring within six months, with the TMSF voting those shares meanwhile, according to the regulator's statement as reproduced by Alomaliye. The statement also covered Hedef Yatırım Bankası and the Destek companies; its five decision numbers, 11576 to 11580, appear in a KAP filing by Destek Finans Faktoring.

Tera Portföy's funds are among those the SPK closed to trading and ordered liquidated on 17 September (bulletin 2026/60); İş Bankası runs the liquidation of the Tera funds (bulletin 2026/61). In a statement on 20 September the fund manager said redemption instructions had "toplamda yaklaşık 300 milyar TL'ye varan topyekûn bir çıkış talebine dönüşmüştür" ("turned into a wholesale request to withdraw reaching about TRY 300bn in total"), and that its payments to investors stopped after restrictions and blocks were placed on its account at Takasbank on 18 September.