Turkish real sector’s debt restructuring gathers pace

Neşe Karanfil - ANKARA

Restructuring of the Turkish real sector’s debts to the domestic lenders has accelerated in the past two months, according to figures from the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB).

Debts worth 24.9 billion Turkish Liras ($2.9 billion) were restructured in May and June as part of a program launched in 2018.

The program was integrated with legislation in 2019. Last month, it was extended again and the upper limit of loan debt restructuring for small firms was increased from 25 million liras ($2.9 million) to 100 million liras ($11.6 million).

In May, four tourism companies operating in the Mediterranean region of Turkey applied to the banks to restructure their debts of 7.8 billion liras ($905.2 million) in total.

In June, two energy firms approached the banks to change the repayment schedules of loans worth 5.3 billion liras ($615.1 million). Construction companies also made applications to restructure debts totaling 1.6 billion liras ($185.7 million).

The total amount of loan debts restructured by large companies in May and June reached 14.3 billion ($1.6 billion) and 10.6 billion liras ($1.3 billion), respectively.