Bloomberg:  Turkish contractor in talks with banks to restructure loans

Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi is in talks with banks to restructure around $1 billion of loans, after a row over payments for a project in Tanzania hit the construction company’s cash flow, people familiar with the matter said, write Asli Kandemir and Kerim Karakaya of Bloomberg, in a great inside scoop.   The Istanbul-based contractor, which used the loans to build hundreds of kilometers of railways in the East African country, owes lenders around $3.2 billion, said the people, asking not to be identified as the negotiations are private. A bulk of the loans it wants to restructure was taken out from state-owned lenders in Turkey, they said.   Yapi Merkezi declined to comment. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to4xuXOvDF0[/embed] In December 2021, Yapi Merkezi signed a $1.9 billion contract with the Tanzanian government to design and build 368 kilometers (229 miles) of rail network, followed by a 2022 deal to build another 165-kilometer line. Tanzania’s public auditor earlier this year criticized the terms of a loan agreement between the Tanzanian government and Standard Chartered Plc, which the watchdog said made the funds available on condition that Yapi Merkezi was hired for the job.   A wave of debt restructuring hit Turkish corporates after a currency crash in 2018, affecting tens of billions of dollars of credit repayments. Coronavirus lockdowns starting in 2020 resulted in a second wave, as falling demand hit companies.   Follow our  English language YouTube videos  @ REAL TURKEY:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKpFJB4GFiNkhmpVZQ_d9Rg And content at Twitter: @AtillaEng Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/realturkeychannel [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwNA3whYzoE&t=14s[/embed]