The Esin Attorney Partnership, a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International, has advised a syndicate of 14 international and Turkish banks as lenders on a USD 500 million and TRY 720 million Senior Secured Term Loan Facilities provided to VIP Turkey Enerji A.S., a subsidiary of Vitol Investment Partnership Ltd., to finance its acquisition of OMV POAS Holding A.S., POAS's holding company. Allen & Overy and Gedik & Eraksoy acted for VIP Turkey Enerji on the financing.
POAS is the largest oil distribution company in Turkey: its business includes the largest retail station network, with more than 1,700 service stations; the largest fuel storage and logistics business with a total storage capacity in excess of 1 million cubic meters; and the leading distributor of lubricants and jet fuel wing supply for 20 airports. In 2016, POAS’s total sales volume was 10.68 million tons. ING Bank N.V. acted as documentation agent, while Akbank T.A.S. and ING Bank N.V acted as coordinators.
Remarking on the successful completion of the acquisition facilities, Esin Attorney Partnership Partner Muhsin Keskin, who led the firm's team on the deal, stated, "We are happy to assist the lenders with this transaction, which is expected to be one of the biggest acquisition facilities of 2017. Turkish acquisition finance has changed drastically since 2012, when we first imported the EU's 1976 financial assistance rules as a model. We have been working to come up with innovative ideas to solve the problems this legal change posed, and it is exciting to see that our efforts are panning out as acquisition finance has become of one of the busiest practices of our finance department."
Keskin was supported by Esin Attorney Partnership Associates Berk Cin, Baha Erol, and Sena Uralcin.
The Allen & Overy team advising VIP Turkey Enerji on the financing was led by Partners Charles Lindsay and Joe Clinton and included Associates Dilsah Gurses and Sarah Yeowart.
As reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 14, 2017, CHSH and Balcioglu Selcuk Akman Keki Avukatlik Ortakligi advised OMV on the actual sale, with Kolcuoglu Demirkan Kocakli and Hengeler Mueller advising the Vitol Group.
