Istanbul Izmir Highway Project

Deutsche Bank made a refinancing offer for the first phase financing package of the Istanbul Izmir highway project. The consortium, which undertook the project, sat down again with 8 Turkish banks, and the loan was renewed with a lower interest rate, and the financing cost was reduced.

The introduction of Treasury guarantees for major infrastructure projects such as the 3rd bridge, 3rd airport and İzmir-Istanbul Highway in TURKEY has increased the interest of foreign banks, which until now have been distant from financing such projects. One of the most concrete examples of this interest was experienced with the refinancing offer from Deutsche Bank for the Istanbul-Izmir highway project.

It was learned that Deutsche Bank's first cash flow offered a lower interest rate to the Nurol-Özaltın-Makyol-Astaldi-Yüksel-Göçay consortium, which carried out the 'Istanbul-Izmir highway' project, including the İzmit Bay Crossing, which is expected to start in 2015. As a result of this offer made by Deutsche Bank due to the start of the project and the guarantees, the consortium is back at the table again with the Turkish banks that have already given the loan. For the first phase of the Istanbul-Izmir Motorway project, 8 Turkish Bank, 3.5 billion-dollar financing package, Garanti, Halkbank, Ziraat Bank, Vakifbank, Is Bankasi, Yapikredi, Akbank and Finansbank participated.

DISCOUNT ON A POINT

In the event that Deutsche Bank accepts the offer, the consortium would close the loan from Turkish banks early. While the consortium began to reopen Deutsche Bank's low-interest offer, the banks, which are currently lending, began to negotiate the 'early payment commission' item in the agreement. Following the negotiations, Turkish banks agreed to cut interest rates in excess of one point. Thus, Deutsche Bank's proposal was rejected.

However, Deutsche Bank continued to insist on project financing. This time the Bank decided to participate in the financing of the second phase of the project. Some of the Turkish banks in the financing package wants to sell the loan but some of the banks 'We want to say that we have made the financing of this big project,' said they did not look hot. The senior official of one of the banks in the financing package said, yer The prestige of participating in the financing of such large projects exists. A little bit of interest, İlgi he said. The project is expected to shorten the distance to 140 by the current state route and to save 870 million TL in a year. A total of 5.17 billion TL is spent on the project.

This type of practice is done abroad frequently

REFINANCE is a common practice abroad. Due to attractive conditions such as the anticipation of the flow of money on a more concrete date, especially with the big infrastructure projects coming to an end, some institutions are going to the contracting firms with a refinancing proposal. Again, one of the methods that are frequently applied abroad is the sale of the loans in banks' portfolios. This is also a less common method in Turkey. Bank loans in Turkey are keeping their balance sheets. Therefore, the early payment commission is put into place in large credit agreements and the potential negative effects of this transaction are tried to be eliminated. It is stated that this early payment commission is also involved in the financing of the İzmir-İstanbul highway project and this is one of the negotiation chapters between the parties.