Four or five “blue-chip” Turkish companies plan initial public offerings (IPO) in the first half of 2010 as the economy recovers from the global credit squeeze, said the local head of Credit Suisse Group AG.

“The companies planning IPOs are from the industrial sector”, said Ugur Bayar, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse’s Turkish unit, in an interview during a private equity investment conference in Istanbul, without identifying them. “There are clear signs of recovery and an increase in the number of such negotiations in the IPO pipeline”, he added.

Freight transporter Ran Lojistik Hizmetleri A.S. last month became the first Turkish company to hold a successful IPO since the financial crisis, raising TRY 9.15 million (USD 6 million). The Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) Chairman Huseyin Erkan said that 872 of the largest 1,000 Turkish companies are not listed.

Bayar said private equity investors now offer an alternative to IPOs for Turkish companies, and are especially interested in the logistics, healthcare and retail industries.

Private equity accounts for around 15 percent of all Turkey’s foreign direct investment, and “it should be more than 30 percent”,