The KAP (Kamuyu Aydınlatma Platformu) — Public Disclosure Platform — is the official electronic disclosure system operated by Türkiye’s Central Securities Depository (MKK) under SPK supervision, through which publicly-traded companies, capital-markets institutions, and regulated entities make mandatory disclosures to investors and the public. Established under SPK Communique VI-103, KAP is the Turkish analogue to U.S. SEC EDGAR or the UK FCA National Storage Mechanism — the single official source for material disclosures regarding listed companies and capital-markets activity.
KAP disclosure obligations apply to: (i) Borsa İstanbul-listed companies (full disclosure regime — quarterly and annual financials, material events, shareholding changes, related-party transactions); (ii) capital-markets institutions (investment firms, portfolio managers, fund operators — operational disclosures); (iii) collective investment schemes (GSYFs, GYFs, mutual funds — fund-level reporting); (iv) credit rating agencies and independent audit firms (oversight disclosures); and (v) increasingly crypto-asset service providers under the 2024 SPK crypto framework (Law No. 7518).
Disclosure categories on KAP include: financial statements (quarterly interim reports within 60 days of period-end, annual audited reports within 90 days); material event disclosures (kamuyu aydınlatma yükümlülüğü) covering significant operational, legal, or financial developments — within 1 business day under normal circumstances, immediate for highly material events; shareholding-change notifications at defined thresholds (5%, 10%, 25%, 50% triggering disclosure); related-party transaction reports; annual reports and integrated reports; insider lists and management transaction reports; and general assembly invitations and resolutions.
The material-event disclosure obligation is operationally critical for listed companies. Triggering events include: contract awards/losses above materiality thresholds, M&A transactions (signing and closing), board changes, capital actions, dividend decisions, regulatory enforcement actions, significant litigation, major partnership announcements, and any event that “a reasonable investor would consider important” — a Turkish formulation analogous to U.S. SEC Form 8-K material-event disclosure. Late, incomplete, or misleading disclosures expose the company to SPK administrative fines (TRY millions for serious violations), individual director sanctions, and potential investor litigation under SPK’s capital-markets liability framework.
For Turkish startups planning Borsa İstanbul listing (whether on Yıldız Pazar main market or BIST Star), pre-IPO KAP-readiness is a substantial operational discipline: building internal-control frameworks for disclosure-decision making (legal review, financial validation, board approval pathway), establishing disclosure-officer (kamuyu aydınlatma sorumlusu) appointment, developing disclosure-policy and procedures manual, training executives on disclosure obligations, and integrating KAP-publication mechanics with broader corporate-communications strategy. Vircon Legal advises pre-IPO Turkish companies on KAP-readiness preparation, listed-company disclosure-discipline implementation, material-event response protocols, and the coordination of KAP obligations with parallel investor-relations and corporate-communications functions.