A pair of debut Eurobond issues from top Turkish corporates in less than a month has prompted bankers to predict that greater corporate Eurobond issuance from the country is here to stay.
White-goods producer Arcelik sold an inaugural $500 million 10-year bond at the end of March. Arcelik’s parent company, Koc Holding – Turkey’s largest conglomerate and a market leader from car manufacturing to banking – then made its global market debut with a $750 million seven-year note in mid-April.
The deals took the total raised by Turkish corporates in the Eurobond market to $2.74 billion in the past seven months, according to Dealogic. Last month’s deals followed transactions in the autumn from Turkish beverages company Anadolu Efes and oil refiner Tupras (see Deals of the year, Euromoney, February 2013).
This compares with just $1.66 billion of issuance from the sector over the previous decade, as Turkey’s debt capital markets lagged behind those of developing world peers such as Russia and South Africa because of the lack of a sovereign investment-grade rating and high local interest rates.
Bankers report a substantial pipeline of other non-bank corporates looking to access the global bond markets, particularly if – as expected – either Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s joins Fitch Ratings in boosting the Turkish sovereign to investment-grade status by the end of the year.
