:: Kınay Group ::


Ali Riza Kinay, founder of Kinay Group was born in Cyprus in 1907.

Until 1926, Mr. Kinay worked as a clerk at Necati, Riza & Co. in Cyprus, Limassol, his family’s business where he first developed a taste for entrepreneurship. However, as a young man, he decided to immigrate to Turkey where he saw bigger opportunities.

His first job was a position at Ionian Bank Ltd. After this bank had ceased its operations, he had applied to various banks for a new job and meanwhile, worked part time at a Notaries office. During this time, he started learning French by just reading and working on his own. Also, occasionally, he was attending the classes at the Law School and visiting social organizations like YMCA and American Bible House.

His banking career took a positive turn when a position opened at the Ottoman Bank which at the time was the largest government owned bank in Turkey. The bank had wide operations throughout Turkey while other banks were rather small and locally operated. After going through tough interviews and written tests, his foreign language knowledge and previous business experience paid off and he was accepted in 1929 to the Ottoman Bank scoring the highest score among applicants. His career at the bank would continue until 1946.

Mr. Kinay was very successful at his new job becoming chief accountant within one year and a half, assistant manager two years later and then promoted to the position of manager. He had worked in various branch offices of Ottoman Bank in various cities of Turkey, always as a high ranking officer.

In 1938, he was assigned to Bandirma Branch where he stayed for eight years. Then he was nominated to the managerial post of Antalya Branch. However, due to his wife’s illness, he did not want to change the city he lived in and rejected this assignment. The bank was insistent for this, and upon this he decided to resign.

After his resignation, he saw the opportunity to establish a first class ship agency business providing services for vessels calling Bandirma, a non-existing service at the time necessitating companies based in Istanbul to send their own personnel, a costly and inefficient operation. He thought this should not be the right way to do this business and in 1946, decided to set up his own company, namely A. Riza Kinay Shipping Agencies and Trading Inc. Simultaneously, he had obtained the agency rights of Borax company which was extensively shipping borate cargoes out of Bandirma. By performing his duty as an agent with the highest quality of service, he had eliminated the necessity for Borax to send staff from abroad to supervise the ship loadings and by this way, enabled them to have extensive savings.

In 1979, UNM Ltd. (later renamed “Hasat Ltd.”) is established as a foreign trade and representation company mainly active in the Boron trade.

Alfa Shipping S.A. (later trading as “Kinay Chartering”) was established as the brokerage arm of the group with a mission to service the group’s own cargoes and other third party clients.

The group acquires its first vessel, M/V M Engin, a 1977 built 7,600dwt general cargo vessel.

As the group takes delivery of its first handysize vessel, the 1978 built 27,000dwt M/V Hasat, it decides to establish its own ship management company.

Mr. Ali Riza Kinay passed away in 2002 at the age of 95 and his name today is synonymous with quality, reliability and best reputation in Turkish shipping.

The group expands into freight forwarding and logistics with the establishment of KTL (“Kinay Transport and Logistics S.A.”) to take advantage of the growing containerization in Turkey.

The group orders 3 units of 6,000dwt craned bulkers with deliveries in 2007 and 2008.

The group expands its 6000dwt bulker series with an order of additional 4 vessels to be delivered in 2008 and 2009.

Starting this core business, his success had led to growing and diversifying the business to its form today, with numerous companies active in Ship Agency, Chartering, Ship Owning and Operating, Ship Management, Freight Forwarding and Logistics as well as International Trade and Representation. Today, Kinay Group employs in excess of 150 employees working at its headquarters in Istanbul and seven branch offices located in major Turkish ports.