Through its syndicated loan renewal, Akbank has provided over US$ 700 million in support of the Turkish economy. The loan has 367-days maturity with an all-in cost of SOFR+2.75% and Euribor+2.10%. 32 banks from 15 countries participated in the successful loan renewal, which included the addition of sustainability performance criteria.
“We are proud to sign yet another syndication transaction that underpins the trust in the Turkish banking system”
Regarding Akbank’s successful syndication transaction, Akbank CEO Hakan Binbaşgil noted, “Following strong oversubscription from banks, which is around 108% of our total renewal amount, we have renewed our syndication above our initial target, with US$ 700 million In such a challenging environment, Akbank successfully renewed its syndicated loan with the participation of 32 banks from 15 countries while 3 new correspondent banks from Europe and Middle East which were not involved in last year’s transaction participated. We are proud to sign yet another syndication transaction that underpins the trust in our strong balance sheet and capital structure, as well as the Turkish banking system. We would like to thank all investors and relationship banks who participated and supported our transaction.”
“By adding sustainability (ESG) performance criteria to our syndication, we have added a new dimension to our sustainability efforts”
Highlighting Akbank’s success in achieving all ESG targets in its April & October 2021 syndications, Levent Çelebioğlu, Executive Vice President of Akbank Corporate & Investment Banking said, “We have added two sustainability performance criteria (ESG KPIs) to our April 2022 syndicated loan. Taking a step further in our sustainability commitment, this year we increased the criteria of ‘electricity procurement of the bank from renewable resources’, which is increased from 60% to 80%. In addition to this, we introduced a brand new performance criteria: replacing plastic credit cards with recycled ones. Setting this transformation that we had started in December 2021 with Axess as an ESG criteria, we commit to increase the number of recycled PVC credit cards. Hence, we aim to reduce CO2 emission with an increase in number of substituted PVC cards. Our sustainability-focused syndication transactions have become an important part of our bank's ESG-focused borrowing strategy as well as consolidating our leadership in sustainability in our sector. Accordingly, we are delighted to complete our April 2022 syndication successfully. We will continue our efforts that lead the sector in this area.”