The foundation of DMY Electronic Investments was laid in 1980 with the first manufacturing activities in the field of uninterruptible power supplies and electronics. Today, the company has various partnership structures with more than 35 companies operating in the electrical, electronics, energy, automation, construction, tourism, maritime, telecommunications, lighting and pharmaceutical sectors. The Group also provides management consulting and joint purchasing services to group companies. We talked with Suha Oker, Executive Board Member of DMY Elregardingnic Investments, which focuses on products and services that will add value to our country, about their current investments and the company's goals.
Suha, can we get to know you closely?
I was born in Istanbul in 1956. After completing high school at the British High School, I studied manufacturing engineering at the University of Birmingham, and then returned to Türkiye and finished the Department of Business Administration at Istanbul University. I got married in 1979 and started bearing the responsibility of being a family head at a very young age as a father in 1981. After 4 years of professional work, I worked in a company that manufactured comprehensive IT services, the majority shares of which belonged to me, for about 15 years. As a result of the economic hardship experienced in the world in 1998, I handed over my company to my employees and assessed a job offer I received from Davut Yurttas. In 1999, I joined the DMY Electronic Investments Group, which was formerly Inform Elektronik A.S. As a person who started his life early, I believe that people are very important raw material and the effort put into them can change many things. I also believe that investing particularly in young people is very important, and I enjoy guiding young people as well.
We know that DMY Electronic Investments operates in several sectors. Can we also listen your investments from you?
Inform A.S., which emerged from Ozdisan, which was founded in 1980, not only meets 40% of the Turkish market demand with the uninterruptible power supplies it manufactures but also manages to attract the attention of many foreign companies by exporting to 82 countries and capturing a 1.2% market share in the global market. As a result of negotiations and audits that lasted about a year, 100% of the company's shares were sold to the French-based Legrand group in 2011. With the capital obtained from this operation being reintegrated into the Turkish economic life, the DMY Electronic Investments Group, which consists of many companies operating in the electrical, electronics, energy, automation, construction, tourism, maritime, telecommunications, lighting and pharmaceutical sectors, was established. Ozdisan Elektronik, operating in the field of component supply for the Power Electronics sector, Savior in automation and control fields, ASSAN Elektronik and EMS Elektronik, which offer complete services to all electronics manufacturers especially in the defense industry, TESCOM Elektronik, the leading company in UPSs, Savlight and Na-De Elektronik in lighting field, EPC Elektronik in special industrial power electronics solutions, Satoz, a TFT and LCD panel and module manufacturer based in China, Somacis Türkiye, which serves high quality PCB needs, Alpke, a manufacturer of all kinds of conductors used in transformer manufacturing, Satelcom, which provides engineering-oriented services in telecommunications, Mavisis, the only domestic solar inverter manufacturer in Türkiye, ALGA, an expert in the supply of all kinds of industrial batteries, Terra in generic drug manufacturing and distribution, DMY Energy companies in solar energy, Devbros DMY in shipping and our other companies serving in the construction and tourism sectors, are the main companies that constitute the DMY Electronic Investments Group and carry the responsibility of supporting Türkiye's industrial development initiative. I have been working in this Group since 1999 as a Group Coordinator in order to contribute to institutionalization by following the Group standards.
Can you tell us about your activities under your job definition? What are your main business processes?
Throughout my life, instead of giving orders and directing people, I have supported them to reveal their potentials by sharing my knowledge and experience. I am striving to move forward in this direction in order to create a productive synergy among all DMY Elektronik group companies. My special interest is the financial analysis and auditing process, which is based on the need for every company's figures to be clear and accessible at all times. Using this data, we are working to identify and improve the points of failure in the group companies. It is my main task to ensure that both the company’s management and DMY Elektronik, which is actually an investor, can access the right data at any time and have the right information about the progress of each company.
“Our priority is to ensure the development of our existing companies and investments rather than making new investments. “
What kind of services do you offer for your group companies?
We provide information processing infrastructure, ERP/MRP applications, digital transformation requirements, legal and financial consultancy services, as well as financial analysis and audit functions under a common roof through DMY Elektronik. In this way, the managers of the Group companies can focus on the main business issues and work more efficiently.
What are the current developments at DMY Electronic Investments in this regard?
There are 20 active companies within DMY Elektronik. Some of these companies also have sub-companies that operate under them. So, the total number of companies is actually 50. In this case, our priority is to ensure the development of our existing companies and investments rather than making new investments. Especially during the troubled economic process that Türkiye is going through, we are working to be able to do existing jobs better and get a bigger market share by continuing to be a group of companies at an efficiency level that can repay investments. Although our country is a producer, it has to import the raw materials it needs for production. This requires applying a business concept that requires a portion of each company's revenue to be foreign currency. For this reason, we support the efforts to open our companies abroad.
Can we learn about your criteria for investments?
Our priority is a partnership structure that is open to sharing, transparent and based on trust, rather than the need for capital and knowledge. It makes us happy that this prominent point among our investment criteria is in parallel with our perspective on people. When the foundation of the investment relationship is based on trust and transparency, a structure emerges that works like clockwork at every point and does not allow for weakness. Today, I can proudly say that all our companies operate in a completely legal and ethical manner. The main motivation given to our senior managers is, “Do not create a soft spot where anyone can question us.”
We would also like to discuss your activities as DMY Shipping. Can you tell us about your activities in this field?
We operate in two ways in order to balance risk and efficiency in the shipping sector. One of them is a long-term ship charter (time charter), which is relatively risk-free and predictable in the short and medium term, and the other is a direct ship operating (voyage charter), which has a higher return in parallel with the higher risk. Our parent company, Devbros DMY, operating in the shipping sector, has a long-term chartered 4 of its 7 bulk carriers, while directly operates the remaining 3. With this capacity, we are able to transport 75 million tons of bulk cargo between many global ports each year. One of the criteria we were looking for when investing in this sector was to have ships that are able dock in many ports around the world. The ships we have today are not only able to cross the ocean but also to enter from the Black Sea, for instance, and navigate on the Danube River. In this way, the desirability of our ships has increased significantly.
Can you tell us about the goals of DMY Shipping in the near future?
The economic service life of the ships varies between 15 and 20 years. Since our ships were built between 2010 and 2011, we need to consider their existing service life. As the efficiency of aging ships decreases, we aim to increase the number of ships in the fleet to 10 over time by trying to keep the average age of our fleet low in the upcoming years.
What would you like to say about DMY Energy?
One of the major items that make up the current account deficit of our country is energy. Therefore, we believe that supporting the national economy by using the natural resources of our country instead of importing energy is a civic duty rather than a regular investment. For this purpose, we have invested approximately $20M in the past few years and established solar power plants with a production capacity of 18.75 MW, which can meet the electricity needs of approximately 13 thousand homes per day. These power plants are exposed to outdoor natural conditions for 365 days in various regions of Anatolia. We are trying to maintain these fields at the highest possible level of efficiency by constantly maintaining them. As a citizen and an investor, we are proud of our energy investments.
“Our parent company, Devbros DMY, operating in the shipping sector, has long-term chartered 4 of its 7 bulk carriers, while directly operates the remaining 3.”
Anything you want to add?
DMY Electronics has become a family of 3 thousand people who have been able to create a corporate culture among themselves. In order to maintain this, old habits must be replaced by an understanding that utilizes emerging opportunities and technology. None of us are immortal, and instead of leaving something dependent on ourselves, our fundamental duty and goal should be, and is, to create institutional systems that will enable future generations to work seamlessly from where we left off.
