Pro-Gülen bank’s bond issue halted: Report

ISTANBUL

Daily Sabah claimed Bank Asya’s bond issuance has been suspended.

The Turkish capital markets watchdog has blocked the 1 billion Turkish Lira Islamic bond issuance of an Islamic lender, according to a Turkish daily report.

The bank is known to have close ties with the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s movement.

The Capital Markets Board (SPK) halted Islamic lender Bank Asya’s 1,250 billion liras worth sukuk issuance, citing “problems with the financing structure of Bank Asya,”pro-government daily Sabah claimed in a report published April 23.

The lender has already carried out around a 250 million-lira sukuk issuance and the block aims to cease a 1 billion-lira export, according to SPK authorities quoted by daily Sabah. They reportedly said the bond sale was allowed when the bank applied in October 2013, only to be blocked after “problems occurred in the financial structure of the lender.”

The Islamic lender has been in focus since Turkish media reported that state-owned companies and institutional depositors loyal to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had withdrawn 4 billion liras ($1.8 billion).