Backed with solid knowledge, Karamehmet got back to his hometown in Tarsus to set up his first company with capital of 100.000 TL provided by his father who was the head of the local chamber of commerce at the time. He went on to set up another company, Cukurova Holding, which has turned into a conglomerate through the years. However, the most of Karamehmet’s fortune is derived from his shares in Turkcell, Turkey’s largest GSM mobile phone operator and the only Turkish company publicly traded on the NYSE.
