Turkey: 6 banks to loan $5.1 billion for airport project

ISTANBUL

Three public and three foreign-financed banks will provide 4.5 billion euros ($ 5.11 billion) to a joint venture involving five Turkish construction companies that will carry out the construction of what is expected to be the world’s largest airport in Istanbul.

The IGA Havalimani Isletmesi A.S. consortium, which won a tender in 2013 to build Istanbul’s new airport, signed an agreement Monday with the six banks -- public Turkish banks Halkbank, Ziraat Bankasi, VakifBank and foreign-financed Turkish banks DenizBank, Garanti Bankasi and Finansbank -- to provide the sum of 4.5 billion euros for the first leg of the project.

The IGA Havalimani Isletmesi A.S. consortitum includes Turkish companies companies Cengiz, Mapa, Limak, Kolin and Kalyon.

According to the agreement, the loan maturity date has been set in 16 years. The total budget of the project’s first leg is about 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion).

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Istanbul on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that construction would consist of four legs in total, the final of which would end in 2028.

Noting that the first leg of construction would result in the partial opening of the airport in the first quarter of 2018, Erdogan said: “[The project] will provide additional employment for approximately 80,000 [people] annually during the construction period.”

“This figure will increase to 120,000 people when the airport fully comes into service,” he added.

Erdogan underlined that the new airport would be an example to the world in terms of its impact on the environment.

“Generating its own energy, this airport is designed as eco-friendly and disabled-friendly,” he said.

The Turkish president said that once the new airport’s construction is completed, it will be one of the largest in the world in terms of passenger capacity.

The new airport is expected to boast a world record of a 150 million-passenger annual capacity.

Istanbul's third airport, after Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen, is being built in the northwestern part of the city on the European part of Istanbul.

According to the IGA website, the airport will contribute 22.2 billion euros ($25.1 billion), in addition to value-added taxes, over 25 years to the Turkish state.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was also in attendance at the ceremony.