The EBRD and commercial banks have lent a Turkish tractor engine manufacturer €75mn in finance.

The development bank contributed €30mn from its own account, while GTR can reveal that the remaining €45mn was syndicated to Société Générale and Rabobank. The EBRD’s tranche has a five-year tenor with two years’ grace, while the syndicated portion has a tenor of three years. The facilities are each priced at Euribor plus 2.2%.

The lender is TürkTraktör, who will use the loans to modernise its Ankara plant and to build a new one in the Erenier province of Sakarya in the Mamara region. Mike Davey, the EBRD’s director for Turkey tells GTR that the majority of the produce will be used domestically but that he expects the number of exports to go up in time.

He continues: “We are particularly proud to invest in research and development at TürkTraktör. This will help them manufacture better, more powerful engines for tractors that will consume less fuel. For farmers and the agriculture this means more efficiency, less pollution.”

General manager at TürkTraktör (which is partly owned by Illinois-bsed agricultural manufacturer CNH Group) Marco Votta, says: “As TürkTraktör, we laid the foundations of our new factory in Erenler, Adapazarı at the end of March. Research and development investments are of crucial importance for Turkey’s better use of its agricultural potential. With this loan we have agreed with the EBRD, we will be focusing on the financing required for our new factory, modernisation of our existing plant and development of new technologies”.