Akin Gump has advised Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi on its USD 350 million issuance of fixed-rate resettable sustainability Tier 2 certificates due 2031.
Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi is a Turkish participation bank majority-owned by Kuwait Finance House.
According to Akin Gump, these trust certificates are the world’s first regulatory capital Tier 2 environmental, social, governance, and Islamic compliant trust certificates. “An amount equal to the net proceeds will be applied to finance and/or refinance eligible green and/or social projects in accordance with Kuveyt Turk's Sustainable Finance Framework. The certificates were issued on September 16, 2021, through KT21 T2 Company Limited, a Cayman Islands incorporated special purpose vehicle. The joint bookrunners were Bank ABC, Citi, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, KFH Capital, and HSBC.” The trust certificates are listed on Euronext Dublin.
According to the firm, “the issuance was oversubscribed 12 times with an order book of USD 4 billion. The issuance also achieved the tightest pricing for any Tier 2 Issuance out of Turkey since 2017 at 6.125%, reflecting strong fundamentals and positive market sentiments."
Akin Gump’s team included Partner Rizwan Kanji, Counsel Hamed Afzal, and Associate Sahar Abas.
Editor's note: After this article was published, Clifford Chance announced that it worked with its Turkish associated firm Ciftci Attorney Partnership to advise the joint lead managers. Their team was led by Global Head of Islamic Finance Qudeer Latif and Head of Finance Sait Eryilmaz and included Istanbul-based Associates Basar Kirka, Ali Can Altiparmak, and Zana Oztarhan.
