The Esin Attorney Partnership and Baker McKenzie's Paris office have advised Akbank T.A.S. in relation to its USD 404,512,884 and EUR 738,271,106 Dual Currency Term Loan Facilities. Balcioglu Selcuk Akman Keki Attorney Partnership and Dentons advised Joint Coordinators and Bookrunners Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited, Emirates NBD Capital Limited, and ICBC Turkey Yatirim Menkul Degerler A.S. on the transaction. Bank of America Merrill Lynch also acted as Documentation Agent, while Emirates NBD Capital Limited acted as Publicity Agent and Mizuho Bank acted as Facility Agent.
Participating banks included 19 Book-runners and Mandated Lead Arrangers, 3 Lead Arrangers, and 16 Arrangers. According to the Esin Attorney Partnership, "the facilities acquired overwhelming demand from the global markets and 38 international banks across North America, Western Europe, Asia, and the Middle East participated."
Remarking on the high value of syndicated facility and the high number of participating lenders, and referring to Akbank's recent offering of USD 500 million Basel III compliant Tier 2 Notes under Akbank's USD 3.5 billion Global Medium Term Note Program (reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 16, 2017), Esin Attorney Partnership (EAP) Partner Muhsin Keskin stated: "This is the second transaction we represented Akbank in March and Akbank raised USD 1.7 billion as a result of these transactions. The world's largest banks and financial institutions were among the liquidity providers in these deals. These high figures and investors remarkable interest reveal the level of confidence of international investors in Akbank particularly; the Turkish banking sector and in general, the Turkish economy."
The multi-jurisdictional EAP and Baker McKenzie team was led by EAP Partner Muhsin Keskin and Paris-based Baker McKenzie Partner Michael Foundethakis, supported by Senior Associate Nicholas Macheras in Paris and Associate Berk Cin in Istanbul.
The London-based Dentons team included Partner Isaac Felberbaum and Managing Associate Robert Spedding, while the BASEAK team in Istanbul consisted of Partners Barlas Balcioglu and Gunhan Yalcin and Associates Ceyda Aydin and Cemre Demirkaya.
