İmamoğlu: 'We Will Quickly Start Construction On 4 More Metro Lines'

İBB realized the first Eurobond sale exported abroad by a municipality in our country after 33 years. IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlustated that 2 investor institutions from around the world showed interest in the sale, which took place on December 248, last year. Saying, “We faced a purchase demand of 580 times, that is, 4,3 billion dollars, in return for the bond sale of 2,5 million dollars, which we targeted," said İmamoğlu. Thanks to the 580 million dollars financing we have provided for Istanbul, we will quickly start construction on 4 more metro lines. Thus, Istanbul will have a total of 52,1 kilometers of new metro and 39 new stations. On these lines, more than 275 million passengers will be transported per day, 5 thousand per hour in one direction. While the traffic will be relieved in Istanbul, it will be ensured that the people of Istanbul can travel quickly and comfortably. As a result of the contribution of this new financing, as IMM, our rail system constructions on 10 lines will continue at the same time.” İmamoğlu applauded the sales team and said, “The result we have achieved; When evaluated together with its size, interest rate and maturity, it is a summary of the international trust in the new IMM management in terms of transparency and merit.”

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) realized the first Eurobond sale exported abroad by a municipality in Turkey after 33 years. IMM President Ekrem İmamoğluspoke at the press conference held on the promotion of the sale. Before İmamoğlu's speech, the leader of the team that realized the historical sale, Turgut Tuncay Önbilgin, Deputy Secretary General of IMM, and Hande Kayacık, Legal Advisor to the General Secretariat, Finance Manager Dr. Rezzan Neslihan Vural, Financial Analyst Serra Mandacı, Assistant Secretary General Advisor Elif Karabay and Strategic Asset Management Manager Ozan Şakar were invited to the stage.

"UNCALCULATED, UNLOCKED WORKS"

Stating that they organized the meeting to give good news during the difficult days due to the global epidemic, İmamoğlu underlined that he drew attention to the importance of metro investments throughout the election campaign and said:

`` In saying this, knowing that previous administrations, who hung banners all over the city by saying 'Metro Everywhere, Metro Everywhere' and promised to finish 2019 kilometers of metro construction by 400, especially in recent years, were wasting time and resources in metro construction. i was talking When it came to work, we saw that; Without solving the financing needs of subway constructions that require huge budgets, unpaid work was undertaken, unfortunately, even a barley length could not be traveled in order to make life easier for Istanbulites. From the first day we took office, we started searching to 'make a new start to Istanbul' and to find funds for all unfinished metro constructions. Because the resources of the IMM were so wasted that it was not possible to construct the subway with its own budget. "

"DURMUŞ WE STARTED WORKS ON 6 LINES"

Reminding that they found foreign financing last year as a result of their overseas visits and the effective efforts of their team, İmamoğlu emphasized that they restarted the rail system construction on 6 lines that were stopped in this way. İmamoğlu shared the following information about these lines:

“We have completed the Mahmutbey-Mecidiyeköy Metro line, which is the first of these lines that has been completely stopped for 2 years, and opened it to the service of our people on 28 October 2020. We will open the Alibeyköy-Eminönü tram line we started in a few weeks. Again in 2021, we will complete the İkitelli-Bahariye partial metro construction and the Cibali-Alibeyköy tram construction and open them. We will complete and put into service all our lines, whose construction we have restarted, in 2022 and 2023. Of course, in order to facilitate the lives of 16 million citizens of Istanbul, much more investments should be made and many new metro lines should be brought to our city. In this context, the construction of which completely stopped; Kaynarca-Pendik-Tuzla, Çekmeköy-Sancaktepe-Sultanbeyli, Kirazlı-Halkalı and Mahmutbey-Bahçeşehir-Esenyurt metro lines, instead of borrowing from banks, we started working with our friends to issue Eurobonds, this time as a new financing tool. "

"OUR EFFORT HAS RESULTED WITH A GREAT SUCCESS"

Stating that the IMM team has met with international investment banks, international law offices and many international investor institutions for the last 3 months, İmamoğlu said, “He has transparently introduced the economic power of Istanbul and the financials of IMM to the international circles. Our newly established Istanbul Investment Agency has also contributed to these efforts. I am pleased to announce that; our efforts have been a great success. For the project finance of our 4 metro lines I mentioned, we managed to issue the first unsecured Eurobond in the amount of 5 million USD to international capital markets with a 580-year maturity. Our bond issue on Wednesday, December 2; It attracted great attention from global investment circles, especially in Asia, Europe and America. In contrast to our targeted $ 580 million bond sales, we faced a 4,3-fold purchase demand, that is, $ 2,5 billion. Moreover, despite the fact that we issued a period when investment transactions were extremely reduced, we were approaching the end of the year, and municipal bonds are an international non-index investment. We achieved a success in a bond issue, which attracted a total of 248 investor institutions from around the world. The result we achieved in the sale of this bond, which is the first Eurobond to be issued abroad by a municipality in our country after 33 years; "It is a summary of the international trust in the new IMM administration in terms of transparency and merit, when evaluated together with its size, interest rate and maturity."

"AN IMPORTANT HOPE FOR OUR FUTURE"

Stating that they will start the construction of 580 more metro lines rapidly thanks to the 4 million dollars financing they have brought to Istanbul, İmamoğlu said, “Thus, Istanbul will have a total of 52,1 kilometers of new metro and 39 new stations. More than 275 million passengers will be transported on these lines per day, 5 thousand per hour in one direction. While the traffic in Istanbul will relax, Istanbul residents will be provided to travel quickly and comfortably. As a result of the contribution of this new financing, as IMM, our rail system constructions will continue on 10 lines at the same time ”. İmamoğlu emphasized that the great interest of the investors in our bond issuance is the result of the trust in the new administration of IMM and Istanbul. The reliable investment climate created by the principles of transparency, merit and common sense kept the coupon rate payable for bonds at 6,375 percent, the lowest compared to similar issues in our country. The world's current economic progress, the process of fighting the pandemic in which our country and were in our city is also considered, the global market a municipality from Turkey that size is an important hope for our future to provide financing with interest rates, "he said.

"WE COME ON ONE BY ONE OF ALL KINDS OF CHALLENGES"

Stating that the way to keep Istanbul as a livable, productive and moving city is to expand the metro network, İmamoğlu said, “Although many promises were made about the metro in this city in the past, it was not possible to move quickly due to lack of planning, waste and lack of financing. With our new vision, our competent and professional young staff, our belief in the future of this city and our hard work, we overcome all kinds of obstacles and all kinds of difficulties one by one. We will continue to come, ”he said. İmamoğlu, who presented a large financing amount of 580 million dollars through bonds, one by one, said:

“This team has worked hard in the development of a sustainable and low cost new financing instrument for our city, despite the high political risk rates of our country. They made a great contribution. I would like to thank each and every one of them on behalf of me, our city and our country. This success we have achieved is a first for IMM, for local governments. We are a municipality that achieved firsts and we will continue to do so. We will have new firsts to beautify Istanbul and make life easier for 16 million people. I hope this result we have achieved for the financing of our new metro lines will be beneficial. "

"WE HAVE A CREDIT RELATIONSHIP WITH PUBLIC BANKS AT ZERO POINT"

İmamoğlu answered the questions of journalists after his speech. The questions asked to İmamoğlu and the replies given by the IMM President were as follows:

Question: A news appeared in the foreign press. He writes that especially foreign investors question whether there is a risk of default due to your relationship with Erdogan. Before you applied for the Eurobond, you said, "We have attempted to find funds from public banks or domestic banks." Is there still resistance there? Second, did you get approval from the Ministry of Finance?

“It already has approval processes. Without them, this business cannot work. Confirmation is received in advance. Of course, the interpretation of the foreign press does not concern us much. We are currently taking care of Istanbul's needs and managing the process in that way. In fact, there is no resistance in public banks. It is very stable and continues at zero level. I don't know what the public banks are doing. Because almost, as far as I know, a loss of 750 billion lira was announced in public banks. I have no idea where they ran, where they lent money. I hope it's time to question this. But the really resistance rating about us right now is zero. Because we have a credit relationship with public banks at zero point. "

"INSPIRE THAT THEY GIVE UP FROM THIS ATTITUDE"

Question: You said "We have zero relations with public banks". Have you ever made a loan request? We understand that you will focus on external financing for projects in the upcoming period. Is it possible to issue Eurobonds again? Or are you looking for other external financing methods?

“When we say that our relationship with public banks is zero, this is not a recipe on our side. Because we have made great efforts to relate. Think about it; You can use a credit limit that existed one day before the election, -I am talking about a credit limit of hundreds of millions of dollars- a management saying, 'I do not let you use this', 1 day after the election. That is, where, in which country, in what economic understanding; I leave this to your discretion. You are the names that will get the best pen. Did we ignore the relationship after that? On the contrary, we have repeatedly attempted and continue to do so to establish and develop this relationship through an individual, but institutional, chairmanship; we will continue to be found. Because, they do not think that the managers or the wills in charge of those public banks are the owners of those banks. State banks belong to the nation, despite all their drawbacks and all their troublesome management styles. Its salvation is possible. I hope they will give up this strange attitude. I hope our relationship comes to life; we also benefit. Since that, we never stay away from the relationship. Of course, we do not want to be interested in foreign financing. Of course, we would like to make maximum use of resources in our country. But in today's political environment, it is obvious that this is an obstacle. It is almost obvious. But apart from that, if there is a possibility at home, we will benefit from it. We take advantage of whatever means available abroad is the most convenient, cheapest and in favor of the city. The important thing is to manage this skillfully, to manage it transparently, and then to convey the citizen very accurately when you want to finalize which project we produce in favor of the people. In this respect, our relationship with external financing resources will continue. This could be called a bond issue, project financing or other elements. "

"WE ARE IN THOUGHT TO TEND OUR HIZRAY PROJECT FOR A GIFT TO ISTANBUL"

Question: What is the share of metro investments in municipal investments? What is the ratio of IMM's budget in this sense?

“We want the subway line to exceed 600 km. Our work on this subject continues. Of course, there are also studies carried out by the Ministry of Transport with us. This is pre-election. This figure was a total number. Currently, we opened our Mahmutbey-Mecidiyeköy Metro line. This 18 km line was activated. Now, Eminönü-Alibeyköy 13km will be activated in 2-3 weeks. Step by step we are walking towards here. We have lines that will be activated next year. We activate our 4 lines with this loan. These are very valuable steps. In other words, we are progressing step by step, on behalf of the city of Istanbul, to reach our goal of exceeding 600 km.

In 2021, with a unique financing method and a special agreement, our Hızray project from Sabiha Gökçen Halkalı We intend to tender our 'Hızray' project, which will pass from east to west, across Istanbul in approximately 55 minutes, to present it to Istanbul. Again, in the same context regarding the Incirli - Beylikdüzü line, which has been related to the west of Istanbul for many years, we are planning to tender these lines in 2021. In fact, together with these two lines, the existing planned lines will allow Istanbul to experience the process that will greatly relax Istanbul's metro network. Of course, in order to integrate the sea transportation and transportation system, we have prepared the Hisar - Aşiyan Finiküler Line, which we have prepared in Istanbul and want to give a gift, in some parts of Istanbul, especially for sea transportation ... Especially our friends who aim to bring an integrated transportation system to sea transportation. project work continues. "

"WE WILL PROVIDE FUNDING FOR THIS PROJECT IN ISKI"

“Let's get to the ratio of the Istanbul budget. You are all witnesses and you know that; In terms of the cost of this work, there is no chance to compete with the metro investment within the current IMM budget. This work cannot be interpreted with 'I allocated 13 percent, I allocated 14,5 percent'. We do not have a chance to make a comparison with other cities in the world. We can compare this within the economy of the country as a whole. When we did this cut, we concluded this process under really favorable conditions and even with an accepted economic reputation in the rejected processes. This is very valuable. confidence in the city of Istanbul, confidence in the new management of the city of Istanbul and the whole process in the contacts we have established previously in or visits we made it in our meetings with financial institutions when they visit come to Turkey and we have expressed much it. Managing a completely transparent process has raised this reputation even higher. This is the success of the process. With the budget of this issue next year, of course, this balance was taken into consideration in terms of the repayment of the debt. But such an exact figure does not have a parallel relationship with a year's budget. Moreover, from now on, we continue to work on project-oriented project financing as we have the idea of ​​issuing bonds. İSKİ will proceed mainly in the form of this project financing. "