Turkey’s Çanakkale bridge, highway project secures 2.3 bln euro financing

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and Highway project, a suspension bridge over the Dardanelles Straits, has secured 2.3 billion euro ($2.83 billion) of financing, Çanakkale Otoyol, the company formed by the consortium handling the project, said on March 16.

The loan will be paid in 15 years with a five-year grace period and was secured from 24 banks and institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Bank of China and ICBC, from 10 countries, it said.

The countries participating in the financial deal were comprised of South Korea, Germany, France, Italy, U.A.E., Kuwait, China, Britain, Denmark and Turkey, according to the statement.

Some 70 percent of the financing was secured from foreign institutions, read the statement.

The remaining 683 million euro loan was secured from the foreign branches of Turkey’s lenders.

Among Turkish lenders were Akbank, Finansbank, Garanti Bank, İş Bank, Vakıflar Bank, Yapı Kredi and Kuveyt Türk.

According to the statement, South Korea’s export credit agencies KEXIM and KSURE 1 offered the biggest loan package that any Turkish project has ever secured with their 1 billion lira worth cash loan and guarantees.

Denmark’s export credit agency EKF also took part in the deal.

Early in 2017, a consortium of South Korean and Turkish companies — Daelim, SK E&C, Limak and Yapı Merkezi — won a tender and a 192-month lease for the historic bridge.

The Çanakkale 1915 Bridge — named in honor of the country’s historic victory in the region during World War I — will span over 2,000 meters between Lapseki and Gelibolu (Gallipoli) in northwestern Turkey.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge took place on March 18, 2017, the 102nd anniversary of the Çanakkale War.