Akbank Renewed Its Syndication Loan

Akbank renewed its syndication loan. The bank stated that it renewed more than 100 percent of its syndication.

According to the statement made by Akbank, Akbank provided over $ 675 million support to the Turkish economy with its renewed syndicated loan. The cost of the syndicated loan with 367 days maturity was Libor + 2.50% and Euribor + 2.25%. 35 banks from 18 countries participated in this successful transaction, which was carried out by adding the sustainability performance criteria of the bank. Commenting on the bank's statement, Akbank General Manager Hakan Binbaşgil said, "Despite the negative developments in international markets and the increase in the country risk premium, we managed to keep our syndication costs at the levels of October 2020. We received a request from banks for $ 792 million, which corresponds to approximately 126 percent of our renewal amount. After this strong demand, we renewed our syndication amount above our target, above $ 675 million. Thus, our renewal rate was realized as 107 percent." Stating that Akbank announced its sustainability strategy to the public in January 2021, Binbaşgil said: "We have added three sustainability performance criteria (ESG KPIs) to our syndicated loan and harmonized our foreign borrowing with this strategy. Respectively, these performance criteria, which consist of gender equality, non-lending to new coal plant projects and our bank's electricity supply from renewable resources, are met during the specified test periods. We have recently taken an important step regarding the criterion of non-lending for the new coal plant project, we have added the projects within this scope to our list of activities that will not be credited. We are pleased to realize our first sustainability-focused syndication transaction. We believe that our operation will set a positive example for all our stakeholders. We aim to increase the share of sustainable finance-based borrowing transactions in total borrowing to 30 percent by the end of 2021. Our syndicated loan, which includes sustainability criteria, is one of the most important steps taken in this direction."