Turkey

"Raised to the rank of commander of the Legion of Honor in July 2007, decorated at the hands of Nicolas Sarkozy, Bruno Lussato had his entree to the Elysée, thanks in particular to the chief of staff of the former president. If there is a geopolitical issue on which Bruno Lussato has tried to weigh, it is indeed that of opposition to the entry of Turkey into the European Union. With, as a corollary, his desire to rather prioritize strengthening relations with Russia, "a country and a people much closer to us culturally, and with whom a partnership would be more natural," he explained."

"But Cook’s email to the board was a model of transparency relative to what he and Maestri would tell analysts on the earnings call just a few hours later. They informed Wall Street that Apple was expecting $89 billion to $93 billion of revenue in the holiday quarter, underwhelming investors. But they didn’t say a word about the muted sales of the XR, or the difficulties of forecasting, or that Cupertino now expected China revenues to shrink. Instead, they soothed investors with cheery sentiment. The obfuscation was brazen. Asked specifically about the XR, Cook replied that it’d been on sale for just five days so “we have very, very little data there.” Asked about “deceleration” in emerging markets including China, Cook said it was a “great question” and mentioned “we’re seeing pressure in… markets like Turkey, India, Brazil, Russia.” Then he switched to China, subtly moving from present tense—the nature of the question—and looked back a quarter: “In relation to China specifically, I would not put China in that category. Our business in China was very strong last quarter. We grew 16 percent, which we’re very happy with. iPhone in particular was very strong, very strong double-digit growth there.”"

"The meeting place for Arab businessmen in the early '70s was "The Paris of the Middle East," Beirut. The Lebanese trading traditions were an important factor, as was Beirut's role as the financial center of the region. All major banks had an office in the capital of Lebanon. But just as important were Beirut's beaches, the modern hotels, and the bustling nightlife. It acted like a magnet on men from the still orthodox and almost dry countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and partly Turkey."

"In the global financial markets, a merciless battle for investment rages. Having money alone is no longer enough. One must also get the chance to invest it properly. The network of Nicolas Berggruen has access to such sources. For example, when Erdoğan's government decides to privatize the rivers of Turkey, Nicolas Berggruen hears about it even before the first one-on-one conversations have taken place. Former politicians do not get their well-paid positions on supervisory boards for nothing. Their networks operate like intelligence services and open every door."

"The debut has been successful. The Los Angeles Times (from October 27, 2010) introduces "Nicolas Berggruen, until recently unknown in politics," as part of an interview. His prestige is enhanced by his business successes, which are listed one after the other: majority shareholding in Spain's largest newspaper publisher, renewable energies in Turkey, and most recently owner of the largest department store chain in Germany."

"While Gibbs watched a jet ‘bombing’ structures on his farm in October 1999, for a sixtieth birthday party treat, he had a team of engineers working away in the English Midlands on his amphibious car project. Hundreds of thousands of man-hours later, by the time Richard Serra’s *Te Tuhirangi Contour* was launched in February 2003, the team at Gibbs Technologies had nearly completed the world’s first high-speed amphibian legally permitted to drive fast on land and water. Gibbs presented the Aquada to the international media in London in September 2003, and the world was interested. Clips of the Aquada operating as a sports car on the road, then driving down a ramp and seconds later taking off as a jet boat fast across the water were the most downloaded items on the World Wide Web for more than 24 hours. Television stations from Turkey to Argentina covered the story with fascination."

"My vision was not coming together on the banking side, with analysts saying there wasn’t as much synergy in international telecoms as in pharmaceuticals, where you get real economies of scale. So I sold my Bulgarian and Czech telecoms investments within about ten months of each other. BTC was sold to the private equity arm of AIG, a US insurer, which popped out of the woodwork when I was expecting Greece Telecom, Deutsche Telekom or Turkish Telecom to buy it. Lehman Brothers advised us and AIG bought our 65 per cent stake for $855 million – far more than we were expecting. This sale wasn’t without complications either. Towards the end of the auction, I had lunch in London with Saad Hariri, the son of the late prime minister of Lebanon, and prime minister himself in 2009–11. He was the head of Oger Telecom, a Saudi/Lebanese company that owned Turkish Telecom, and he signalled that he was interested in buying BTC. I was keen and thought it would fit well with the group’s Turkish operations. Then AIG made a late bid and I was summoned to Bulgaria to see the prime minister. ‘We don’t want to sell to the Turks,’ he told me. ‘We want the Americans.’ I told him it was basically down to price, but the prime minister made it clear that I should bear in mind the time that might be needed to clear the deal, depending on who I chose. ‘Fine,’ I replied. And of course we sold to AIG. I have no regrets about that. We made almost €400 million profit on that deal."