Yapi Kredi has signed a one-year US$800mn club term loan facility, via mandated lead arranger Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. The syndicated facility will refinance a previous US$650mn facility raised for KocBank and repaid on September 5.

The loan will be used for pre-export finance purposes, and pays an all-in cost of 47.5 basis points per year.

Despite current market conditions which suggest margins on bank-to-bank lending will rise, the margin on this particular facility has fallen from the 62.4bp paid on the bank’s last club loan signed in February.

A total of 31 banks joined the facility during syndication. Additional mandated lead arrangers were ABN AMRO, American Express Bank, Arab Bank, Bank of New York, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Bayerische Landesbank, Burgan Bank, Calyon, Citibank, Commerzbank, Cooperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort, Fortis Bank, Bank of Ireland, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan, Lloyds TSB Bank, MashreqBank, Natixis, RZB, RBS, Saudi National Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered, Unicredit Group, Wachovia Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and WestLB.

Joining as arrangers are Bank of Montreal, BHF-Bank, Caxia Geral de Depositos, Co Bank, and KBC. Co-arrangers are Dexia Bank, Bank Hapoalim, Goldman Sachs International Bank, Habib Bank, and UBS. Nordea Bank joined as a manager.