Turkey’s Yapi Kredi has signed the largest syndicated loan in the Turkish banking sector to date with a hugely oversubscribed US$1.45bn dual-tranche, multi-currency facility.

The new loan, which was oversubscribed by 145%, will be split into a US$300mn tranche and a €759mn tranche.

The loan has a tenor of one year and will be used to pre-finance exports and refinance the bank’s April 2010 US$1bn syndicated facility.

Yapi Kredi are paying a margin of Libor plus 1.1% on the loan, this is down from the 1.5% over Libor that the bank paid on the 2010 facility.

Standard Chartered acted as coordinating bank and facility agent and a total of 47 banks from 19 countries took part in the syndicate.

Basak Coskun, head of investor relations at the bank, explains the success of the deal to GTR: “Turkish banks have always had easy access to the syndication market. Even in the crisis period, the sector was able to increase its syndication amount.

“This year, with the continuation of the positive macro environment and stability and strength of the banking sector, supply is again very healthy on the back of the low risk environment.”

Coskun also highlights Yapi’s position in the banking sector as a draw for participating banks.

“We have a historically strong and very well established name in correspondent banking based on reciprocal business relationships. The deal was finalised with the participation of 47 banks, which sets a high benchmark in the sector.”

Yapi Kredi did not give the full list of participating banks when contacted by GTR.

However, the following banks acted as mandated lead arrangers on the deal: Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, JP Morgan, Mizuho Corporate Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Standard Bank, SMBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, BTMU, RBS, UniCredit, Wells Fargo and WestLB.