6 banks to finance $2.8B for North Marmara Highway

The North Marmara Highway project is set to receive around $2.8 billion in financing from six major Turkish banks by the end of this year.

The three leading public banks, Ziraat Bank, Vakıfbank, and Halkbank, as well as leading private banks Akbank, Garanti Bank and QNB Finansbank, will provide finance in the project.

Sources said that it was initially decided that five banks would provide $2 billion but the amount went up to $2.8 billion once the QNB Finansbank also joined the group. Another source claimed that the banks will provide $650 million as bridge financing for the project and noted that financial closure will take place this year. Biddings for the Kınalı-Odayeri section, on the European side of the project, and the Kurtköy-Akyazı section, on the Asian side, were held last year in two separate packages under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.

The Asian part of the project, which will see a total investment of TL 7 billion ($1.98 billion), was undertaken by Limak Construction-Cengiz Construction Joint Venture, while Kolin Construction-Kalyon Construction Joint Venture won bidding for the European part of the project.