The treasury has issued a mandate to Chase Manhattan Bank for a $33.5 million package to finance completion by the local Dogus and Italy's Contur on the Tarsus to Mersin motorway project in the southeast, say bankers (MEED 27:1:95). The US institution is still awaiting treasury sanction for a $54 million loan to finance construction by Tekfen of the Mersin to Gaziantep motorway.

The package for the Tarsus-Mersin project will finance the construction of viaducts and cost overruns in an original $250 million contract (MEED 23:12:94). Contur is a subsidiary of Italy's Astaldi. A commercial portion valued at around $10 million will be for three years, and the remainder, in export credits covered by Italy's official export credit agency, SACE, will be for 11 years.

However, negotiations for a $50 million, one-year deal to finance natural gas imports offered by Citibank to state pipeline agency Botas have fallen through, say bankers. The deal collapsed when Botas decided it did not need the funds after all, they say. The treasury had also advised Botas against one-year money in preference for longer terms, the bankers add. The funds would have been supplied from Islamic funding sources.