Ayse Besikcioglu

Arkas Holding

Founded in 1902, Arkas' main business fields are agency services, port services and integrated logistics services combining sea, land, rail and air transportation. In addition to its main areas of business, Arkas operates in a variety of sectors such as bunkering, automotive, insurance services, information systems and tourism. Arkas Holding currently operates in 23 countries with 59 offices, 14 of which are in Turkey. Headquartered in Izmir, Arkas is an international holding that employs 7,300 people in its 62 companies. Arkas has been building a fleet of vessels since 1996 which currently comprises of 25 container vessels and is Turkey's largest container operator. The fleet also includes 6 bunker barges. Arkas Line is providing liner container services in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, West Africa and North Europe. It is the only Turkish company among the world's top 25 largest container/liner operators according to Alphaliner, the world renown shipping research company. Arkas is a partner (Hapag Lloyd, Yang Ming and Tarros SPA) or a representative (Grimaldi Lines, ACL, DAL, UAFL, Ethiopian Shipping) of 10 prominent global shipowners in Turkey. In addition to the lines it represents in Turkey, Arkas also represents various lines in countries where it has offices in, representing Hamburg Süd in Morocco and Algeria, as well as PIL in its Black Sea offices.