SPK (Türkiye’s capital markets regulator) announced that, for investment funds liquidated under Capital Markets Law No. 6362 and the relevant legislation, “Optional Refund Accounts” have been opened in the name of TMSF at Birleşik Fon Bankası for each fund, enabling those who made excessive gains from the sale of participation units before liquidation to make voluntary refunds. These amounts will only be added to the liquidation assets of the relevant fund, cannot be transferred to another fund or account, and will be transferred to T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş. and Türkiye İş Bankası A.Ş. for use in payments to participation unit holders. A separate “General Share Refund Account” was also established for refunds of excessive gains on shares traded on the stock exchange.
Why it matters
For participation unit holders, the practical implication of the regulation is that voluntarily refunded gains will be included in the source of the payments to be made to them; therefore, which fund a refund belongs to also determines how the money is used. The prohibition on transfers between funds means that an amount refunded for one fund cannot be used in payments to the participation unit holders of another fund. The mechanism described for those who made excessive gains is based on voluntary refunds; the announcement does not indicate how much money was returned through the opening of these accounts. The existence of a separate account for shares traded on the stock exchange also shows that refunds related to fund liquidations and share transactions are not pooled in the same account. The amounts to be paid to participation unit holders and the timing of the payments are not included in the information provided.