Contacts: In Ankara: Tunya Celasin, (90-312) 459 8343 Tcelasin@worldbank.org In Washington: Michael Jones (1-202) 473-2588 mjones2@worldbank.org ANKARA, May 22, 2008— The World Bank today approved a US$ 600 million Export Finance Intermediation Loan (EFIL 4) for Turkey, which will help to expand capacity and improve competitiveness of exporting firms by providing medium and long-term working capital and investment finance. The project also aims to continue developing the capacity of banks and leasing companies as financial intermediaries to provide credit to firms. The Loan will be to the Turkish Industrial Development Bank-Turkiye Sinai ve Kalkinma Bankasi (TSKB) and to the The Export Credit Bank of Turkey-Turkiye Ihracat Kredi Bankasi (EXIMBANK), with a government guarantee. EFIL 4 follows three earlier projects, EFIL 1-3, under which Turkish banks and leasing companies provided about $600 million in export financing to about 500 Turkish companies since 1999. “The performance of Turkish firms and banks will continue improving. I see strong potential for further export development, and I expect that growing financial markets will play an increasingly important role in funding export and private sector growth,” said Ulrich Zachau, World Bank Country Director for Turkey. “Financing for Turkish firms under the EFIL 4 project will help them compete in international markets and increase production and exports. This will bring more and better jobs for Turkish workers and higher incomes for Turkish families.” The first component (US$ 300 million equivalent) of EFIL 4 is a credit line to TSKB. TSKB will lend the funds to participating banks and leasing institutions, which in turn will on-lend to eligible private exporters. The second component (US$ 296.3 million equivalent) is a loan to Eximbank, which will on-lend funds directly to exporters in the shipbuilding and machine-building sectors, which have strong export and growth potential. The third component (US$ 3.7 million) will help Eximbank prepare for the implementation of the Basel II Principles, which is scheduled to start January 1st, 2009. It includes upgrading Eximbank’s existing IT systems and building critical IT back-up capacity for improved operational risk management. The loans under the EFIL IV project are Fixed Spread Loans (FSL) in two currencies (US Dollar and Euro): a US$ 300 million equivalent loan to TSKB with 28.5 year maturity and a 7-year grace period, and a US$ 300 million equivalent loan to Eximbank with 30 year maturity and a 5.5-year grace period. The loans will have a fixed spread over the benchmark interest rate (6-month US Dollar Libor and Euribor) and provide medium or long term funding for the Borrowers (TSKB and EXIMBANK), the participating financial institutions, as well as the final beneficiaries, the private exporters in Turkey. - ### - For more information about the World Bank’s work in Turkey, visit: http://www.worldbank.org.tr. For more information about this project, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/projects. |
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