Bosphera Private Equity, a Turkish firm launched last year, is planning to hold a $100m (€77.6m) first close in the first quarter of 2013. 

The firm is targeting $350m for the fund and hopes to reach its first close “by April next year at the latest” according to Ihsan Sancay, founding partner of Bosphera, with a final close in the next 12 to 15 months.  

Bosphera spun out of Global Capital Management in late 2011 with a view to investing in Turkey's mid-market, which he says is still under-served. “In the last five years... we've seen fierce competition on maybe ten per cent or 15 per cent of deals,” Sancay told Real Deals. 

Sancay argues that the largest domestic firms in the market, Actera and Turkven, have raised billion-dollar funds and will therefore have to target ever larger deals, leaving the mid-market under-capitalised.

Turkish mid-caps are worth a total of $300bn, according to Sancay. “These businesses account for 85 per cent of Turkish companies and are the most dynamic parts of the economy.”