“In a normal market, we’d have taken the lead and syndicated from commercial banks,” said Shahbaz Mavaddat, the IFC’s director for southern Europe. Instead, the IFC, which aims to make new loans of around $300m in Turkey this year, has facilitated a package financed almost entirely by multilaterals.
EBRD is likely to step up plans to invest EUR450m in Turkey by the end of 2010 as it considers expanding to help mitigate the financial crisis, a spokesman said, adding it was also looking at loans to Turkish banks to support small business finance.
Wind power accounts for a minimal part of Turkey’s energy use at present and the 135 MW plant being built by Zorlu’s subsidiary, Rotor Elektrik, will boost output by 35% when it begins operating at the end of 2009, the IFC said.
“We are very ambitious in renewable energy projects, which will play an extremely important role in our country’s future,” said Murat Sungur Bursa, chief executive of Zorlu Energy Group.
The World Bank said last year it planned “substantial” financing for the Turkish energy sector, and Mr Mavaddat, who has just finalised two similar energy sector deals in Albania, said the package could help mobilise other investors.
But Mehmet Sami, a director at Ata Invest in Istanbul, said there was little sign of commercial lending for infrastructure unfreezing. “Increasingly people are turning to multilaterals. For the time being, these institutions are going to be an independent lifeline to industry,” he said.
