Turkey attractive for Japanese funding
The Japanese Mizuho Bank management, which led a $640 million syndication that 22 banks attended last August in London, proposed a different formula for Türk Eximbank CEO Adnan Yıldırım.
“Come and promote yourselves in Japan, take your place in our $20-30 billion direct debt market. Sell direct bonds to the Japanese market,” said the bank.
Acompanied by Türk Eximbank Board member Işınsu Kestelli and Deputy General Manager Ertan Tanrıyakul, Yıldırım conducted a tour in Japan on Dec. 4-8, visiting banks and financial institutions.
I joined the two-day part of Eximbank’s Tokyo tour with my four colleagues and listened to Yıldırım’s evaluation of the meetings they held with 15 institutions.
“For the first time in its history, Türk Eximbank has had a promo meeting on this scale in Japan. We did not plan to borrow immediately. We spoke about our country and ourselves and ways for direct funding from Japan,” said the CEO.
In the first 11 months of the year, Yıldırım said they had provided a source of $3.7 million from a wide geography, supranational institutions and world-leading banks.
“Within three years in Africa and within two years in Central Asia, the funding for a $1 billion project will be on our country’s agenda. It is important to supply part of this from alternative fund markets,” he said.
Yıldırım said they would be able to make the first direct borrow in the Japanese market in 2018. “The amount is not clear yet but we can expect it to be around $1 billion,” he said.
He emphasized that they would close this year with $40 billion in support to exports, with $22 billion of this in cash loans.
“Namely, we will support 26 percent of exports. In 2018, our support for exports will rise to $46 billion with $29 billion in credit. Our support ratio will increase to 27 percent,” Yıldırım said.
Reminding that 72 percent of their sources were Central Bank rediscounts, “with different methods such as syndication and the issuing of bonds, we have increased long-term bond funds to $9.5 billion. In September, a $2.7 billion request came from 260 international investors for our $500 million Eurobond issuance. It has shown trust in the Turkish economy and our bank,” he said.
Yıldırım drew attention to their collaboration with global export credit institutions in order to increase the competitive power of exporters and contractors abroad.
"This year, we have signed an agreement with the Belgian Export Credit Agency [Credendo], the Italian Export Credit Agency [SACE], Japan’s Nippon Export and Investment Insurance [NEXI], UK Export and Finance [UKEF], the Korea Trade and Insurance Corporation [K-SURE] and Eximbank Thailand. We have earned permanent member status in the Asian Eximbank Forum (AEBF) we had attended in Australia. We will make agreements with the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation [JBIC] and Bpifrance [French public investment bank],” he said.
“We have seen the positive view towards Turkey and our economy continue in Japan. Therefore, we must hold onto Japan more in order to attract more investment-finance and export to Turkey,” said Yıldırım, leaving an impression with this point.
Positive view towards Turkey
Turkish Ambassador to Tokyo Murat Mercan welcomed the exporters at the embassy. “Views towards Turkey are very positive in Japan. Exporting to Japan is an important reference for other countries,” said Mercan.
He also summarized his goals during his time as ambassador. “With nuclear power being at the top, we want to develop our collaboration in energy and for the Turkish-Japanese University to become active, to lower our foreign trade deficit, and bring more Japanese tourists to our country,” said the ambassador.