Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Konstantinos, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Arçelik Conference Call and Live Webcast to present and discuss the third quarter 2021 financial results. All participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Polat Şen, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Özkan Çimen, Finance and Enterprise Risk Director, and Mr. Alper Gür, Investor Relations and Capital Markets Compliance Manager. Mr. Şen, you may now proceed.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our third quarter 2021 results webcast. Before going on to do the details, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all of our employees for their dedication and hard work during this year. I'll start with slide two. Let me give you the highlights of the third quarter. Our consolidated net sales were TRY 18.1 billion in this challenging quarter, registering 52% year-on-year and 25% quarter-on-quarter growth. While the growth was 39% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter, organically. As expected, as the demand across regions started to normalize within the quarter and raw material costs continued to increase; despite falling demand and cost inflation, we have been able to post better EBITDA margin of 10.4% compared to the previous quarter on comparable basis, excluding the impact of acquired operations of Hitachi and Whirlpool Manisa Factory.
On a consolidated basis, including the impact of our recent acquisitions, EBITDA margin has stayed flat as 9.8%. The resilient profitability was a result of operational efficiency, the price increases in the markets, and the positive mix impact. Our OPEX to sales ratio in third quarter came down by 194 basis points to 21.2% compared to the last quarter. On comparable basis, the ratio was down by 90 basis points to 22.1%. Enjoying the positive impact of acquisitions and improvement in net working capital items, our net working capital to sales ratio was decreased to 26.1% from 26.8% in the second quarter of the year. As of July, we have started to buy back our shares since we do not believe that Arçelik's market capitalization does not reflect its actual operating performance.
As of September, we have acquired 26.6 million shares in total, corresponding to 3.9% of the equity, with weighted average price of TRY 32.12. Our leverage was 2x in this quarter, including the share buyback impact of 0.12x, still around the safe zone. Our recent acquisitions are included in the leverage calculation with 3 months operations. Therefore, the leverage is negatively impacted. With an annualized EBITDA contribution of our recent acquisitions, the leverage would also be positively impacted, again, 0.12x as well. You will see 2x, but comparable basis, it is 0.12x and 0.12x, possibly 0.24x less than that. Let's move on to the other slide.
Our revenue on a consolidated basis has increased 52%, as I have just explained, to TRY 18.1 billion in Q3, thanks to the additional units mainly from recent acquisitions and price increases and strong euro dollar against Turkish lira. The growth was 29% year-on-year like-for-like basis. As I was mentioning, the raw material costs continued to increase in this quarter as well. In addition to lower capacity utilization, strong U.S. dollar and euro, and relatively lower profitability of our recent acquisitions resulted around 200 basis points contraction in gross profit margin on a quarterly basis. Like-for-like basis again, our gross margin was 29.8%, reflecting the limited contraction compared to second quarter 2021. Within the period of July to September, we saw an increasing trend in gross margin, and particularly in September, our margin was above 30%.
On the right-hand side, you can see our EBITDA margin. The operational efficiencies that we have created in this quarter helped us to deliver 10.4% EBITDA margin, 62 basis points higher compared to the second quarter, again, on like-for-like basis. On a consolidated basis, including the impact of recent acquisitions, the margin was 9.8%, which is flattish to second quarter as the dilutive impact of acquirees were not as high as Arçelik. I'll move on with the domestic market. In the third quarter 2021, Turkish MDA6 market was down by 11% in unit terms, as it was expected due to the strong base of the last year. Our performance was slightly better than the market, yet we posted 9% contraction in unit terms on a yearly basis.
Besides cycling its strong growth a year ago, consumer appetite was not high due to the inflationary macroeconomic environment and natural disasters experienced in our country. On accumulated basis, Turkish MDA6 market was up by 12% in 9 months 2021, while Arçelik's volume has increased by 18% on a yearly basis. Thus, we have maintained our strong leadership position in the Turkish market. AC market grew by 25% year-on-year on third quarter, and our AC sales have increased by 18%. TV market continued to shrink after second quarter as well. I'll move on to the European market. In Western Europe, we saw contraction at varying degrees in almost all the countries in both July and August, mainly due to the high base of last year. We have seen the highest contraction in U.K. as companies still having supply chain disruptions and driver shortages, which causes lag in delivery.
In Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, and Russia continued to grow, yet the growth was decelerated compared to the previous quarters. The share of European markets, I'm moving to the other slide. The share of European markets in our total sales was 43% in third quarter of 2021, of which 30% was coming from Western Europe and 13% was coming from Eastern Europe. As demand was weakening in Western European markets, Arçelik took benefits of having acquiring Whirlpool manufacturing. The additional units provided by that acquisition, together with the price increases, led revenue to be increased by 20% quarter-on-quarter and 25% year-on-year in euro terms. With strong third quarter performance, Beko has strengthened its market leadership position in U.K. as of 9 months 2021 results, while Arçelik group was gaining slight market share in France, Spain, and Italy.
In the Eastern Europe, Arçelik benefited from relatively good demand and increased its top line by high-teen percentage on quarterly basis. With Beko and Arctic brand, Arçelik group maintained its strong leadership position in Romania in this quarter as well. Our price index in Russia has been increased in July and August, while we were able to gain slight market share in Ukraine with improved price index. When we look at Africa and APAC, cycling a quite strong base with lower units sold, South Africa revenue was contracted by mid-to-high single-digit percentage in third quarter on a yearly basis in EUR terms. On a quarterly basis, despite the looting issues in the country, Defy was able to increase its sales both in domestic and export markets, and also increase its top line by double-digits.
Just like in most of our operating geographies, our strong leadership was maintained in South Africa as well by even gaining market share in the first 9 months of 2021. In line with our strategy, APAC sales is now getting more share in our total sales with Arçelik Hitachi contribution. Arçelik Hitachi shares in total APAC region sales was 60%, while its share was 11% on a consolidated basis. Despite the fourth wave of COVID-19 and continued inflationary environment, our sales in Pakistan was 25% higher in both PKR and EUR terms on a yearly basis, thanks to the continued high demand and price increases. Having been impacted mainly by the government imposed restrictions, our sales in Bangladesh contracted by 26% on a yearly basis in Bangladeshi taka terms.
When we look at the raw materials, in this quarter, average metal price index was flat compared to the previous quarter as copper, aluminum, and electric sheet metal price negatively impacted from energy crisis that we are facing with. On the contrary, average plastic prices came down from third quarter from historic high levels compared to the last quarter, mainly due to the supply surplus normalization period and eased force majeures. We now see that the average raw material prices in fourth quarter are parallel with third quarter and expected to be parallel in first quarter as well in 2022.
This energy crisis that the world has been facing with so far, is going to have a negative impact on some of the raw material prices. Going forward, although the uncertainties are still there, we expect the average raw material prices to be lower in 2022 compared to 2021. I'm going to leave the stage to Özkan to move on from here.
Thank you. I will continue with the sales breakdown. In Q3, Turkey sales grew by 31.6% year-on-year organically. On the other side, our international sales grew by 62.7%, of which 4.4% was organic growth, 22.6% is FX impact, 35.6%, which is actually TRY 2.8 billion, is coming from the acquisitions. We are benefiting from diversified operating geographies. On the right-hand side, you can see our regional revenue breakdown. The share of Turkey in total sales has gone down by 4.5% compared to the same period of last year, and by 0.3% on quarterly basis, as our recent acquisitions enhance our diversification. I will continue with the financials. Here you can see our detailed financials. Those figures include the impact of our acquisitions.
As mentioned in the highlights section, thanks to the contribution of recent acquisitions and price increases, we have strong revenue growth of 52% on a yearly basis and 25% on a quarterly basis. Excluding the contribution of acquisitions, yearly growth was 29%, while quarterly growth was 6%. With revenue of TRY 18 billion in Q3, we have reached TRY 45.6 billion in year-to-date figures. Our consolidated gross margin was 28.2% in Q3, reflecting the further increases in the raw material costs and the dilutive impact of the acquisitions. On a comparable basis, gross margin was 29.8%. Despite lower gross margin in Q3 compared to the previous quarter, we have been able to sustain our EBITDA margin as 9.8% through operational efficiency. Without the impact of acquisitions, we have delivered EBITDA margin of 10.4%. EBITDA of TRY 1.8 billion is almost the same as last quarter.
In year-to-date figures, we have reached 11.2% EBITDA margin, which is in line with our guidance. Thanks to the strong operational profitability, our consolidated net income was TRY 716 million in Q3, which is higher than last quarter. Our net profit margin is 3.9% on a consolidated basis, while flattish on a comparable basis. In year-to-date figures, net profit is TRY 5.1 billion, which is 5.2% of revenue and almost 50% higher than last year. I will continue with the net debt slide. Our leverage was 2x in the third quarter, stayed flat compared to last quarter. We have been able to manage to sustain the ratio at quite healthy levels despite cash outs of the acquisitions and having EBITDA contribution only for one quarter and cash out of buyback.
When the value of the shares acquired by the end of September is added to the net debt calculation, the leverage will be 1.83x. If we consider the annualization impact of EBITDA, it will be 1.76x . On the right-hand side, you can see our loan and bond portfolio with TRY 21 billion equivalent, where 35% of the portfolio is Turkish loan and bonds. As you know, we are financing our Turkish business working capital needs in Turkish loans. Starting from the first quarter of this year, as the market rates have gone up, our effective interest rates have been higher. As of September, the effective rate for the loan of Turkish lira is 17.2%, still lower than the average market borrowing rates. We have redeemed our EUR 360 million eurobond in September, therefore our gross debt decreased compared to the second quarter.
Next slide, you will see breakdown of working capital, CapEx, and free cash flow. In this strong quarter, we have generated positive free cash flow of TRY 43 million. Net working capital to sales ratio has improved from 26.8% to 26.1%. Strong EBITDA together with an improved net working capital sales and leverage CapEx sales ratio help us to boost positive free cash flow. On cumulative basis as of September, our free cash flow was negative at TRY 3 billion. However, in the coming quarter, we expect to create better free cash flow compared to the previous quarters. Now, I will leave the floor to Polat for the guidance.
Thank you very much, Özkan. We have decided to make slight adjustments to our revenue guidance compared to the second quarter while keeping all other items the same. Based on our most recent forecast, we increased our Turkey sales growth expectation from 30% to 35%. Our consolidated sales growth expectation from 50% to 55%. Please kindly be informed that almost half of our 35% international sales growth guidance is the revenue contribution of our recent acquisitions. As we are getting closer to the year-end, we are quite confident to achieve our guidance in all lines. Thank you very much for listening to us. We are expecting your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Lanka Sashank with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good afternoon and good evening, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. My question is related to the raw material prices, especially in the plastics market. I think in the last few weeks we've seen prices go up pretty significantly due to the Chinese dual control policy that we are seeing. I just wanted to understand how are your raw material contracts right now, over this quarter as well as Q1 next year, and how should we be looking at the trajectory? I know you said it's going to be flat Q- on- Q. Just wanted to get a more 6-month kind of view here. Thank you.
Right. Thank you very much. To be honest, we have been going through a lot of crises this year. First the chipset crisis, then the logistics crisis. Now we are facing the energy crisis. All those are affecting every single raw material item in a different way. Especially with this energy crisis, we are mainly affected with price pressure from For example, aluminum is affected a lot in our industry, as they are using a lot of electricity to melt, for the smelters. Then also copper is affected. That is something that we expect that the electricity prices is going to be affecting. Also glass manufacturers are affected, that we are using in washing machines and refrigerators, and ovens as well. Those are the prices that we expect to be a little bit under pressure in terms of increase.
With the other raw materials like cold rolled steel, polystyrene, et cetera, we do not see that high increase in terms of price pressure. For fourth quarter, I have to talk average to average because as I told you, every single raw material is moving in a different way. In average-to-average comparison, quarter four is going to be very similar to quarter three, and we expect the same trend to continue in quarter one as well. In 6 months, perspective, we do not really expect a huge change in the raw material prices. That is the expectation. We already are leaving Q4, and we are starting to discuss for Q1 as well. We have some information about it. After that, starting from quarter two, we expect a decrease actually, which is going to make 2022 average raw material prices less than 2021 average raw material prices, all in all. Thank you.
Thank you. Very clear.
The next question is from the line of Cemal Demirtaş with Ata Invest. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the presentation. My question is about the contribution of Hitachi and Whirlpool. Could you further elaborate the details, what portion of that was from Hitachi and what portion of that was from Whirlpool? Could you give some color for the rest of the year and for the following year from that business? Thank you.
Cemal, just to understand your question better, which part of P&L or balance sheet you're asking about? Is it the sales or profitability or where?
First from the revenue side. I see some numbers from the footnotes. Some numbers for Hitachi, around TRY 2 billion something. I want to understand the revenue contribution in the third quarter. That's my question. If you give some color on the EBITDA side, it will be more than welcome. For the following quarters, because we were making some estimates based on some rough estimates, euro estimates, euro based, and it's a little bit lower than what I thought. I want to understand what could be the trend...
I got it.
For the following year. Thank you.
Yes. In terms of sales, Hitachi's contribution was around TRY 2 billion, a little bit over TRY 2 billion. Manisa Factory was around TRY 750 million, a little bit over TRY 750 million. When we look at the EBITDA, as we have tried to explain, without the contributions of those companies, it is 10.4%. With the contribution of those companies, it is 9.8%. I do not have the numbers with me right now one by one. It is obviously clear that Hitachi and Manisa Factory are, in terms of EBITDA, it is lower, but in total average, it is 6.8% for the acquisitions EBITDA. In the coming months, our expectation from those acquisitions, or let's say in the coming year, we are expecting some synergies to kick in. We expect an upside potential in 2022 for the acquisitions that we have made this year.
It's really not easy to say because of this volatile raw material issues that we have we are living in. Definitely, we have been working in these companies right now for 3 months, and we see a lot of synergy opportunities, especially in the raw materials and on the supplier side. We see a lot of synergies, especially in the APAC region, that we can utilize some of our capabilities and their capabilities. I can say that it is going to be higher than this year. Definitely.
In the APAC space, right? U.S. dollar, euro, or euro based.
Sorry, I didn't get the question. Sorry.
Okay. In euro or U.S. dollar base, you mean, right?
What is euro or U.S. dollars?
Yes.
The numbers that I told?
Yes. The levels, you mean, in terms of the size?
Yeah.
Should it be based at U.S. dollar or just the euro?
The one that I have explained is TRY 2.75 billion actually in total. In EUR terms, we are talking about for Hitachi, it's around more than EUR 200 million, more or less. For Manisa, it's around EUR 75 million for this 3 months.
Okay. Thank you. As a follow-up, I see there is some minority interest which is higher in this quarter, around TRY 65 million. What is it related to when we come to the net income? If you subtract that number, minority, I see higher number, TRY 65 million, in third quarter. I see a higher depreciation, by the way. Could we assume that the depreciation will remain at current levels, or should we expect some increase in quarterly depreciation for the following quarters?
Cemal , the minority impact is actually related to the Hitachi acquisition because there are some minorities in the subsidiaries underneath our JV. I will provide you more detail after the call for that variance. It's related to Hitachi.
The depreciation side actually, the difference could be related to the acquisitions again. Let us check and get back to you on that one as well. If this is related to the acquisitions, I think we should be expecting this level of depreciation from now on.
Okay. I see around TRY 460 million depreciation for the third quarter, and it was TRY 380. TRY 8 million higher depreciation. That's why I asked. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Hanzade Kılıçkıran with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you for that, Özkan Bey. I have three questions. The first one is regarding the demand outlook. How do you see the current market trend, both in Turkey and in the international markets? Maybe particularly for Turkish market, do you believe that you may be able to pass the FX impact to retail prices without hurting the demand? Second question is about the cost pressure. There are many different views around the cost inflation for the industry, actually. I try to understand what type of scenario do you reflect to your cost assumption so that you see a decline on your material costs in the fourth quarter. Recently, there was some sort of news flow regarding the shortage of magnesium, which may impact the aluminum. Is this something that could affect your industry?
I think China is supplying the magnesium, so there is some sort of shortage there. The third question is about your EBITDA margin guidance. You are very close to your guidance at the moment. Do you see any sort of risk in the fourth quarter for the full year? Because I think 4Q is traditionally a lower quarter from a margin perspective. Thank you.
Right. Thank you. I'll start with the demand outlook. We have just started our budgeting process for towards 2022. The understanding for 2022, in terms of demand, both for, let's say European market and the Turkish market, looks all right. We are expecting growth in the European market, that is what I can say. In Turkey, because of the strong growth and basis of this year, we think that the growth should be limited. I think in terms of units, it should be around low single digits in Turkey. That is our expectation. In terms of FX effect in Turkish markets, yes, we are really trying to adjust our prices in order to keep our profitability. Is it affecting the demand? Yes, it is. We have started to see that the demand is affected.
That's why we are a little bit, let's say, more cautious about giving high growth for next year, for the domestic market in terms of units. In the other markets, we are expecting growth, including Europe, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and South Africa, which are our bigger piece markets. Also we are expecting some growth in APAC region as well. We are expecting growth in the Hitachi side as well. In terms of cost assumption, you talked about the shortage of magnesium, which is affecting aluminum. Yes, we are constantly following up any issue that may come up, let me say. Right now, we do not see anything, high alert situation in any of the raw materials that we are using.
It is still manageable, and we do not really expect any kind of stoppage in production or something like that in the coming quarters because of those shortages in the market. It's not only about aluminum, I have to say. We are also experiencing the same in the, for example, electrical steel that we are buying as well. All of them are still manageable. That's what I can say. On the EBITDA margin guidance side, it is important for you to understand that in the second quarter, we had a sharp decline in EBITDA and our gross profitability. April was better, but May and June, it started declining. We stopped the decline in July and August, so it was very flattish to May and June, July and August.
Especially in September, we have been able to increase our gross profitability again with the measures that we have taken in price, in promotions, in mixes, et cetera. Right now we have changed the, let's say, the direction of the growth to acceleration. We are expecting better margins, especially in October. In November and December, of course, December is a half month, so the margin is going to decrease. We are counting into that. That's why we think that November and October is not going to be harsh as April to August period. Our expectation is fourth quarter to be in line with our expectations, and that's why we didn't change the guidance for the year end on EBITDA.
Thank you, Polat Şen. It's very clear.
The next question is a follow-up question from the line of Cemal Demirtaş with Ata Invest. Please go ahead.
I have three more questions. The first one is about the financial expense side. I see the numbers for interest expense. We were expecting a little bit higher? I see that there is a normalization in interest expense side. That is my first question. For the following years, assuming, what are your assumptions for the interest rate and the potential impact on you? Normally I get the numbers from your details. I did not have that this time. Did you have any FX gain in this quarter or FX loss? That is related to financial and FX side.
The other question is about the Competition Board investigation. What was it about? Do you make any comment on that, for what reason it was in the agenda? The third question was about the tax side. Effective tax rate was 7% in third quarter. Could we assume this low effective tax to continue for the fourth quarters? Thank you. For the following year, any color? Thank you.
I'll answer the question on competition board investigation, and I'll hand over to Özkan to answer the other questions. The Competition Board investigation is a general investigation that the Competition Board decided to go. According to their claims, they have made the investigation and sent us what they have found. Now they expect a defense from us, and are trying to understand what our position is, and we are trying to explain. We do not think that we are in a position as of today to be able to make a judgment on whether that is going to be an important thing or not. Right now, we are thinking that that is something that we should be able to explain to them.
It will take time, because that is a bureaucratic investigation at the end of the day. There are some phases that we have to go through. Whenever we have enough information or something that we understand that there is an impact on our financials, we are going to be sharing with the public.
I will continue with the interest financial expense side. In Q3, we have a finance expense of around TRY 500 million. Actually, this increased compared to the previous quarters because of the Turkish borrowings in our portfolio have increased. As I mentioned, we had some low rate loans in our portfolio where we need to roll and have high rates interest loans. The average is around 17%, and most of the interest is fixed rate. Therefore, we do not expect much increase in next year, in the coming years. Due to lower rates renewable with higher rates, we expect around 100 basis points increase for the Turkish lira side of our portfolio. Regarding your question of FX gain and loss, this quarter we have a loss of TRY 57 million.
In year-to-date figures, it's almost 0 FX gain or loss, so we don't have any loss in year-to-date figures. Why is it so, if you ask? Because our side of exposure affects the side of our hedge buy or sell side. In times where we have long exposure, we announce FX gains due to swap differentials. This has changed after the acquisition cash out. Our net U.S. dollar position turned out to be short, and we executed dollar Turkish lira buy side forward deals in order to hedge our position. This shift ended up with an FX loss due to, again, swap differentials, but this time as a loss in this quarter. In the coming months actually, we do not expect a higher loss. It will be close to breakeven because our U.S. dollar position is not high in terms of shorts.
It will be close to breakeven in the coming quarter. For the tax side, as you said, our effective tax rate has come down in last quarter and this quarter as well. The main reason behind it is the R&D incentives that we have in Turkey, and also investment incentives, which increases our deferred tax assets. As we are an investing company, our CapEx is increasing. Therefore, with deferred tax asset in relation to that CapEx foundation is also increasing. Coming from the Turkey operations effective tax rate impact, we are a lower effective tax rate in Q3. We do not expect a further decrease in the coming quarter. It will be close to the average rates in year-to-date figures.
Thank you. One last question about the Hitachi side. When I look at the details, as you mentioned to her, you recorded around TRY 2 billion revenue from Hitachi, and the net income impact was around TRY 122 million, as I see from these figures. I see that the net margin of Hitachi was around 6% in third quarter. Two years was 7.8%. In that Hitachi, the EBITDA should be lower, but I understand that there are some other contribution from the Hitachi side, which has higher net margin in that business. Could you give just indication about that for the following quarters? It's a more detailed question maybe, but I see that the net margin is higher for that Hitachi side.
Let me give you clearance, Cemal. Hitachi is a net cash positive company, so they do not have any financial expenses. Rather, they have financial income. Working capital is positive there, and also the net cash position is positive there. That is the main reason, actually, why between the EBIT margin is around, as you said, it's around 6.2%, and the profit after tax is around 6.4%. It's more or less the same because there's no financial expense, basically.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Clear.
The next question is a follow-up question from the line of Shashank Lanka with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Sorry if you already covered this, but I just wanted to understand, what's driving the guidance increase for Turkey revenue? Is it being driven by volumes or is this more pricing driven?
It's mainly price increases that we have. Because of the Turkish lira depreciation, we had to adjust the prices, and that is affecting the last quarter three and quarter four revenue to be higher. That's why we needed to re-guide the Turkish domestic market increase in sales.
Okay. Thank you.
We do have a follow-up question from the line of Cemal Demirtaş with Ata Invest. Please go ahead.
Polat, lately, I see more commercials related to some campaigns, just organized by Arçelik and Beko in local media. Are they also normal within the plans? Or are we seeing additional promotion activities in the fourth quarter? Thank you.
Promotion activities and advertisement campaigns, we always do. As you know, we are one of the most active companies in the market. We do not have any specific strategy to increase our advertisement spending in the last quarter. Of course, in order to increase, especially increase the mix, et cetera, they are making some campaigns accordingly, and they are trying to make people hear about that. I don't think that it is a negligible increase if there is an increase. I'm not aware of any specific strategy on increasing the advertisement in Turkey.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. We have a follow-up question from the line of Hanzade Kılıçkıran with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Polat, I have a question about your share buyback program. You already get to around 5% of the capital now, I think, according to my calculation. What is the room here? Will we continue on this or it's now almost completed?
Yes. We are close to 5%, not yet there. We think that still the Arçelik valuation as of today is a company who is making almost 75% of its sales with hard currencies mainly, or let's say outside Turkey. I think that the hit that we have taken in terms of market cap in U.S. dollar terms is something that we think is not fair, and that's why we will keep on continuing the program. As you know, we have announced that we are going to buy up to 10%, and as long as we see this situation, we are going to keep on buying or realizing our share buyback program. That is the intention.
Thank you.
Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further audio questions nor any webcast questions at this time. I will now pass the floor to Mr. Şen for any closing comments. Thank you.
Right. I would like to thank everyone who has participated in this call at this late time in Turkey. Thank you very much. If you have any further questions, please contact our investor relations department so that we can help you understand the numbers better. Thanks. Good evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone.