About

The legal function at market leading Turkish manufacturer and distributor of high quality dairy products Yörsan was established in 1964 and was acquired by Abraaj Group in 2014. Led by chief legal and corporate affairs officer, Buse Pınar Kaçar, the legal team oversaw the restructuring project in 2014 following the merger of four companies, completing the company’s transition from a family-owned entity to a well governed company in the process. The team followed this with the establishment of Yörsan’s first comprehensive compliance and ethics program, developing training courses for all employees on topics including bribery, corruption, antitrust and sexual harassment. Other significant achievements include: manoeuvring the company through a complicated and successful capital increase processes in 2015 and 2016 and then decrease process in 2016; collaboration with finance team; and implementing a contract lifecycle management program. The team of three also led the negotiations on a collective agreement successfully achieved with a trade union, which had been a big burden for the company since 2008. A successful agreement was signed for three years despite market practice being two years, illustrating the skill and impact that the Yörsan legal team can have. Another demonstration of the team’s skill in handling complex transactions came when completing additional capital increase in time for credit agreement, which became particularly tricky due to the complex shareholder structure of the company. Explaining the success Kaçar says, ‘with a solution found by the hard work of the team the company found a way to complete the process on time without any delay. Accordingly company got free from paying additional interest’.