İşbank successfully closes EUR 544,7 million and USD 300 million Sustainability-Linked Syndicated Loan Facility

İşbank successfully closed a Dual Tranche Dual Currency Term Loan Facility (the “Facility”), being the first sustainability-linked transaction of the bank, on 27 May 2021. The Facility has a maturity of 367 days comprising EUR 544.7 million and USD 300 million. Thus, the Facility achieved a rollover ratio of more than 110%. Among the syndicated loan deals materialized in the first half of the year, the Facility by İşbank was the largest in terms of the transaction amount compared to other private banks’.

Bank of America and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank acted as Joint Coordinators, while Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of America acted as Joint Sustainability Coordinators with Emirates NBD Bank (P.J.S.C.) as the Facility Agent. Bank of America also acted as Documentation Agent on the transaction.

The Facility will be used for general trade finance purposes. The all-in yields of the highest participating ticket sizes of the 367 day loan facilities are Euribor+2.25% p.a. for Euro and Libor+2.50% p.a. for US Dollars.

The participation of a large number of diverse and international financial institutions is a testament to the strength of İşbank’s banking relationships and assurance in the Turkish banking sector. Having increased the number of participating banks with a large volume of demand received in comparison to the syndicated loan completed in the previous year, the transaction was well received with the participation of 38 banks from 18 countries in Europe, America, Middle East and Asia.

Within the scope of the first sustainability-linked transaction of İşbank, several sustainability performance criteria were determined, including but not limited to sourcing the bank’s electricity from renewable sources and increasing the percentage of disabled friendly ATMs within the bank’s ATM network. The cost of the Facility will improve in case the performance criteria are met.

İşbank Deputy CEO Ms. Gamze Yalçın stated on the successful deal as follows: “Despite continuing challenges in the market in 2021, having brought in approximately USD 964 million via our first sustainability linked syndicated loan, with the participation of a large number of banks, has reaffirmed confidence in İşbank internationally. While embracing sustainability in every field and integrating it into all of our business processes, we are very pleased to have signed our first sustainability-linked syndication loan. This transaction is a successful example of our business model with an end-to-end design, from the procurement of the resource to its utilization. We reinforce our responsible banking understanding with our performance criteria, which we determined not only by considering our environmental but also our social impacts. Maintaining its position as Turkey’s largest private bank by achieving total assets of TRY 631 billion as of the first quarter of 2021, İşbank will continue its support for the development of Turkey’s economy by financing real sector companies active in foreign trade with the proceeds of this loan”.