Europe's largest railcar producer, Greenbrier-AstraRail, has acquired a majority stake in Adana-based Rayvag Vagon, while the company's founder, Asım Süzen, has a 32 percent stake after the sale.

Greenbrier-AstraRail, a Greenbrier Europe group company, was founded last year to operate in Europe with the merger of the U.S. giant Greenbrier and AstraRail. Following this merger, Polish-based Greenbrier-AstraRail has become Europe's largest railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair company. Turkey became the last stop of the Greenbrier-AstraRail, which currently employs some 4,000 people in production plants and all operations in six countries. The company entered the rapidly growing railcar market in Turkey by acquiring a 68 percent stake in Adana-based Rayvag Vagon. The selling price has yet to be disclosed. Reportedly, before the merger with AastraRail, Greenbrier wanted to build a factory in Turkey and produce 1,000 cars a year. However, the company preferred to enter the Turkish market through acquisition, instead of establishing a plant.

The statement released by the company stressed that Turkey is a very important transportation bridge between Asia and Europe and that there are very serious opportunities in the railcar market, also pointing to intercontinental railway shipments.

"We see Turkey and the Mediterranean as a key within the global transport system," Greenbrier Chairman and CEO William Furman said. "Entering Turkey is very reasonable for us in terms of expanding our operations in Europe." Founded in 2007, Rayvag is a railcar and spare part manufacturer headquartered in Adana. Asım Süzen, the founder of the company, will have a 32 percent stake after the sale. Commenting on the agreement, Süzen said that they wanted to grow as Rayvag, but that growth at this scale could not be realized without Greenbrier's investment.