Trade name and legal form
The full trade name (ticaret unvanı) ends with the legal form: A.Ş. (anonim şirket, joint-stock company) or Ltd. Şti. (limited şirket, limited liability company).
Guide · Turkish companies
How to check a Turkish company
Before you sign, ship or give credit to a Turkish company, check six things: who it is, what the Trade Registry Gazette says, who may sign, whether the board is still in office, whether there are insolvency notices and, for listed companies, what it has disclosed on KAP.
- Official sources only
- Turkish terms explained
- Each legal point with its article
· Ulawk editorial team
Overview
Six checks before you commit.
The registry is public and in Turkish; the steps below tell you where to look and what to watch.
In Türkiye a registry entry counts against you from the business day after it is published in the gazette.
Turkish Commercial Code (TTK) art. 36: once a registration is published, third parties cannot claim they did not know it.
Identify the company
Exact trade name, legal form, trade registry office and registry number.
Read the gazette history
Incorporation, management, capital, address, mergers: registered changes are published.
Check who may sign
Representation and binding (temsil ve ilzam): sole or joint signature, internal directive limits.
Check the board’s term
The board of a joint-stock company is elected for at most three years.
Look for insolvency signals
Concordat, bankruptcy, liquidation and capital reduction notices.
Listed? Read KAP
Listed companies disclose material events on the Public Disclosure Platform.
Step 1
Identify the right company.
Similar names are common. A registry office and its registry number identify one company.
Registry office and number
Each company is registered with the trade registry office (ticaret sicil müdürlüğü) of its seat and has a registry number (sicil numarası) there.
Watch for look-alikes
Branches have their own entries; a company that changed its name or moved its head office published older notices under the old name or at the old office. In İstanbul numbers may carry extra digits: compare the trade name too.
Step 2
Read the Trade Registry Gazette.
The Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi (TTSG) publishes what the trade registry offices register, on working days.
Incorporation and articles
The founding notice with capital, purpose and first management; later amendments of the articles.
Management and representation
Board elections, appointed managers, who represents the company and how.
Capital
Increases and reductions, with the amount before and after.
Share transfers in a Ltd.
Transfers of shares in a limited company are registered and published (TTK art. 595).
Address, name, mergers
Moves of the head office, name changes, mergers, demergers and changes of legal form.
Court and liquidation notices
Concordat respites, bankruptcy, liquidation and deletion from the registry.
A joint-stock company records share transfers in its share ledger; they are usually not published, so the current shareholders of an A.Ş. often cannot be seen in the gazette.
Step 3
Who may sign for the company?
Check the form of representation, not only the name of the person who signs.
Representation and binding
The registry notice states who may represent and bind the company (temsil ve ilzam), alone (münferiden) or jointly (müştereken). Unless the articles provide otherwise, a board of several members represents with two signatures (TTK art. 370).
Internal directive
The board may delegate management by an internal directive (iç yönerge, TTK art. 367). Signing authority is often graded by transaction type and amount: read the limits.
Signature circular
The signature circular (imza sirküleri) shows a signatory’s specimen signature and form of authority on the day it was issued. It is out of date as soon as the authority changes; compare it with the latest management notice.
Limited companies
A Ltd. Şti. is managed and represented by its manager(s) (müdür), appointed by the articles or the general assembly; the three-year limit of an A.Ş. board does not apply.
Step 4
Is the board still in office?
Board members of an A.Ş. are elected for at most three years and may be re-elected (TTK art. 362).
Term ended, no new notice
If the term has run out and no new election has been published, who represents the company may be disputed.
Changes before the end
Resignations, dismissals and replacements are registered and published too.
The date that matters
For a contract, what counts is who represented the company on the day it was signed.
Step 5
Insolvency signals.
These notices change what you should do about open orders, advances and receivables.
Concordat (konkordato)
A court-supervised restructuring under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İİK). The court first grants a temporary respite (geçici mühlet), then possibly a definitive respite (kesin mühlet); both are published. During the respite enforcement against the debtor is, as a rule, stayed, and creditors file their claims within the period given in the notice.
Bankruptcy (iflas)
The opening of bankruptcy and the calls to creditors are published.
Liquidation (tasfiye) and deletion
A dissolved company adds “in liquidation” (tasfiye hâlinde) to its name; creditors are called three times by notice (TTK art. 541); at the end the company is deleted from the registry (terkin, TTK art. 545).
Capital reduction
The board’s decision is published three times; creditors may claim payment or security within two months of the third notice (TTK art. 474).
Concordat filings in Türkiye rose markedly in the first half of 2026. A notice spotted late can mean a missed claim deadline.
Step 6
Listed companies: KAP.
Listed companies and other capital-market issuers disclose on the Public Disclosure Platform (Kamuyu Aydınlatma Platformu, KAP).
Material events
Material event disclosures (özel durum açıklaması): management changes, major contracts, lawsuits, restructuring.
Financial reports
Periodic financial statements and annual reports.
Read both
KAP complements the gazette: registry changes of listed companies still appear in the Trade Registry Gazette.
Checklist
The checklist on one page.
Keep it with the supplier or customer file.
| Check | Where | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Does the company exist? | Gazette: incorporation notice | A branch or a similar name |
| Is it the right entity? | Registry office + registry number | Name changes, head office moves |
| Who may sign? | Latest management and representation notice | Joint signature, internal directive limits |
| Is the board in office? | Date of the last board election | Over three years without a new election |
| Any insolvency signal? | Concordat, bankruptcy, liquidation notices | Claim deadlines in the notice |
| Capital reduced? | Capital reduction notices | Two-month window for creditors |
| Listed? | KAP disclosures | Material events since your last review |
| Who owns it? | Incorporation and share transfer notices | A.Ş. shareholders are often not published |
With Ulawk
Once, then every day.
A one-off check shows the company on one day. Ulawk repeats it for every company on your list.
Add the company
By registry office and registry number, by name, or from an Excel list.
History in one profile
Notices since incorporation read into one sourced profile: management, signing authority, capital, address.
Same-day alerts
A new notice arrives the day it is published, with the gazette page; concordat, bankruptcy and liquidation are flagged as risk.
Board terms tracked
Terms that end without a new election are flagged.
KAP alongside
For listed companies, KAP disclosures next to the registry notices.
API, webhooks, report
Changes to your systems by webhook; a PDF company report for your file.
Limits
What this does not cover.
The registry is one layer of due diligence, not all of it.
No credit score
Risk flags come from notice types; they are not a credit rating.
No tax or court files
Tax and social security debts and lawsuits outside published notices are not included.
Shareholders of an A.Ş.
Often not public: ask for the share ledger and a written declaration.
Names
People are matched by name; the same name may be a different person.
Is the Trade Registry Gazette an official source?
Yes. Registrations become effective against third parties from the business day after their publication (TTK art. 36).
Can I check a Turkish company from abroad?
Yes. You need the company’s name and ideally its registry office and registry number; the gazette and KAP are public.
Is a signature circular enough?
No. It shows the authority on the day it was issued; compare it with the latest management and representation notice.
What should a creditor do after a concordat notice?
Note the respite and the claim period stated in the notice, review open orders and advances, and take legal advice in Türkiye.
Sources
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