The Capital Markets Board (CMB) of Turkey finalized the first phase of the regulatory changes that will allow companies to buy back their shares from the market. The first phase includes the changes for the brokerage houses, Investment Trusts and the REITs. The decision to buy back shares from the market should be approved in the General Assembly of the companies. The maximum buy back amount will not exceed 20% of the company’s paid-in capital and the daily limit of the buy back can not be more than the last three trading day average volume of the shares. Our view: We think that the development is positive for the overall market as the CMB aims to expand this application to cover all the listed companies. Regarding the first phase of the changes, cash rich REITs such as Alarko REIT (ALGYO TI) and Sinpas REIT (SNGYO TI) will be positively affected in our view as the chairman of Sinpas REIT stated that they might evaluate the conditions to buy back their shares.