Through its syndicated loan renewal, Akbank has provided over US $675 million in support of the Turkish economy. The loan has 367-days maturity with an all-in cost of Libor+2,50% and Euribor+2,25%. 35 banks from 18 countries participated to this successful loan renewal, which included sustainability performance criteria.
“The record demand of 126% for our syndication is an important indication of trust in Akbank and the Turkish banking system”
Regarding Akbank’s successful syndication transaction Akbank CEO Hakan Binbaşgil noted, “Despite the negative developments in international markets and the increase in country risk premium, we have managed to keep our costs at the same level as our October 2020 transaction. Our loan received US $792 million of demand, which is around 126% of our total renewal amount. Following this strong oversubscription, we have renewed our syndication above our initial target, over US $675 million. Thus, our roll-over ratio became 107%. In such a challenging environment, Akbank successfully renewed its syndicated loan with the participation of 35 banks from 18 countries. 8 new banks from the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia which were not involved in last year’s April transaction, participated in this transaction. With our transaction, which represents a reference point for our sector, we have paved the way for Turkish banks’ further syndications. 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 taken another step forward in our sustainability efforts”
Highlighting that Akbank leads the sector with its sustainability strategy, which was announced to the public in January 2021, Binbaşgil commented, “By adding three sustainability performance criteria (ESG KPIs) to our syndicated loan, we have aligned our foreign borrowing with our ESG strategy. If these performance criteria, which consist of gender balance, non-lending to greenfield coal power plant projects, and the electricity sourcing of our bank from renewable resources, are met during the specified test periods, there will be an improvement in the terms of our syndicated loan. We have recently taken an important step regarding the criteria of ‘non-lending to greenfield coal power plant projects and we have added these projects to our exclusion list. We are delighted to realize our first sustainability-focused syndication transaction. We believe that our transaction is a positive example for all our stakeholders. We aim at increasing the share of sustainable finance based borrowing transactions in our overall borrowing to 30% by the end of 2021. Our syndicated loan, which includes sustainability criteria, is an important step in this regard. We will continueto lead our sector in this field.”