Garanti Bank secures self-arranged term loan

Trkiye Garanti Bankas (Garanti) has signed a €600mn self-arranged and coordinated club term loan facility to support its trade finance contracts. The deal marks the first foray into the loan market from a private top-tier Turkish borrower this year and refinances a similarly self-arranged US$600mn facility which Garanti closed in May 2007.

The replacement facility carries a maturity of one year and has an all-in cost of Euribor +67.5 basis points.

The deal, which attracted commitments in excess of €700mn before scale back, featured the participation of 31 banks from 15 countries, with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) acting as documentary agent and facility agent. Although, some in the market are believed to have perceived the fees as relatively modest, the deal was comfortably oversubscribed, and the borrower was able to attract a number of new banks to the syndication beyond the international network of relationship banks that participated in the original transaction in 2007.

The mandated lead arrangers of the facility were ABN AMRO, American Express Bank, Bank of Montreal, The Bank of New York, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Bank Capital, Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank (London), Dresdner Bank, Niederlassung Luxemburg, Fortis Bank, The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, London Branch, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., Standard Chartered Bank and Wachovia Bank.