Turkey's Bank Asya signs $250m loan agreement

11 April 2010

Deal substantially increased from original size of $75m

Turkey’s Bank Asya has signed a loan of more than $250m on 8 April, nearly tripling the original size of the deal which was launched at $75m.

The deal will be split between a $121.5m tranche and a €99.2 ($133.9m) tranche. It will be priced at 2.25 per cent above the London interbank offered rate (Libor).

After receiving a strong response to the deal, Bank Asya decided to take the full amount offered by each bank, rather than reduce their commitments. The deal was arranged by Bahrain’s Arab Banking Corporation, Dubai’s Noor Islamic Bank and the UK’s Standard Chartered. There was also significant regional bank participation in the deal.

Bank Asya completed the loan on 8 April as scheduled.

Bank Asya is the largest Islamic bank in Turkey. The deal is structured as a currency murabaha, which means a bank buys a currency for a client, which then buys it back from the bank at a predetermined profit rate.

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