ANKARA: Turkey’s Akbank is in the market for a $250 million three-year loan, making it the first Turkish bank to raise a loan with a maturity beyond 367 days since 2007, according to banking sources.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Qatar National Bank are arranging the deal, the sources said.
The facility will pay a margin of 150 basis points over Libor, one of the bankers said.
It is the first three year deal a Turkish bank has done on a standalone basis since 2007, it will be interesting to see how much liquidity is out there,” said a second banker. “It has been aimed at a specific investor base, not all of Akbank’s relationship banks. It is focussed on specific banks and regions.”
In March this year Akbank was the first Turkish bank to add a new 367-day tranche alongside the normal 364-day tranche on a syndicated loan refinancing.
The $1.2 billion-equivalent deal was signed by a group of 37 local and international banks, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Mizuho Bank acting as joint coordinators, bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers for the loan, with Commerzbank acting as the facility agent.
Since then, several Turkish banks have also introduced the new 367-day maturities on their loans to take advantage of the capital relief banks can now get from the Central Bank of Turkey for holding capital in excess of a year.
Akbank operates domestically from its head office in Istanbul and 23 regional directorates across Turkey and through its subsidiaries in Germany and Dubai.
