Sole mandated lead arranger, Deutsche Bank London has signed a €100mn term loan facility for Turkey’s Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi. The facility has been guaranteed by Sace, the Italian export credit agency, under its internationalisation programme which is available to Yapi Kredi, as Unicredito Group owns a significant stake of the bank.

The facility will be used to further develop Turkish-Italian relations with the funds raised being used to enhance trade between Italy and Turkey and/or to finance Italian owned Turkish companies and/or to finance Italian companies investing overseas.

The tenor of the facility is five years. Deutsche Bank is acting as sole lender.

Following the legal merger of Kocbank and Yapi Kredi in October 2006, Yapi Kredi is positioned as the fourth largest financial institution by asset size, with leading positions in credit cards, assets under management, non-cash loans, leasing and factoring.

The combined group’s financial services network, through its 13mn customers and 610 branches across the country, constitute a premier franchise in retail, corporate and commercial banking offering a broad range of banking products including asset management, leasing, insurance and brokerage.

Yapi Kredi’s long-term foreign currency ratings are BB with positive outlook (Fitch) and B1 with stable outlook (Moody’s ).