Ertan Enginalev
Background
Most investors get to pick a market and stay in it. I never had that choice. I grew up between Germany, Turkey, and the United States and learned the same thing in each: the people running institutions rarely face consequences for running them badly.
WSD Capital Management was founded in 2014 with two desks and one mandate: commit capital and time where change is inevitable.
We invest where complexity keeps consensus from forming and business dynamics create information barriers most international capital won’t cross. Governance failures, family business dysfunction, capital allocation neglect — these create systematic mispricing that persists because the people closest to the problem benefit from its existence.
In 2015, WSD pioneered activist investing in Turkey with a public campaign at Akfen Holding, an industrial conglomerate that had underperformed since its IPO while insiders stayed comfortable. Akfen delivered a 134% total shareholder return and was eventually taken private.
In 2018, we identified British American Tobacco’s acquisition of Reynolds American as structurally overpriced. BAT shares fell 33%, erasing £46 billion in value in what is now cited as one of the most overpriced deals in market history.
Turkey proved the model works in markets others dismiss. BAT proved it travels.
Approach
Governance reform rarely happens through consensus alone. It requires independent perspective and the willingness to challenge comfortable assumptions.
This is what I call benevolent hostility: uncompromising in standards, constructive in intent. Our hostility is reserved for problems, not people. Drift, bloat, neglect: these are the targets, never the individuals willing to resolve them.
Markets punish mistakes slowly, then suddenly. We accelerate that sequence.
Activism is a tool, not an identity.
Prior to founding WSD Capital Management, I worked in investment banking and private equity, focusing on mergers, acquisitions, and special situations.
I hold a BBA and MBA from the University of Miami School of Business.
