BSTDB Increases Support to Turkish SMEs through Leasing Financing
Press Release | 17-Sep-2021
New USD 35 million loan to AKLease will help companies overcome pandemic impact
17 September 2021 – The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is providing a 5-year USD 35 million SME Leasing Facility to AKLease, a subsidiary of Akbank. The financing will enable AKLease to increase availability of funds for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Türkiye, so they can invest in machinery, equipment and business vehicles amid pandemic.
This is the second BSTDB loan to AKLease. The first BSTDB’s EUR 20 million SME facility provided in 2017 served over 200 small and medium sized enterprises.
“Leasing is a powerful and flexible alternative to traditional finance, and we are happy to come together with AKLease to facilitate an uninterrupted access to funding for small enterprises negatively affected by the pandemic crisis and help them continue their businesses and sustain jobs. AKLease is our strong and reliable partner in Türkiye. Our continued partnership is generating an important development impact through increased export capacity, tax revenues and improved competitiveness of the SME sector in the country”, said Dmitry Pankin, BSTDB President.
AKLease General Manager Çetin Düz said “As AKLease, we prioritize producing the right financial solutions that meet the needs of our customers. Our goal is to contribute to the development of investments and the economy by presenting the advantages of leasing with the right financial modeling to the investor.”
AKLease, a subsidiary of Akbank, was founded in 1998 with the purpose of carrying our financial leasing activities. AKLease, with a 9.6% market share, is one of the top 3 leasing companies in Türkiye, in terms of asset size within its peer group. The company operates with 10 branches. AKLease serves to its shareholders, employees, customers within the framework of principles regarding honesty, reliability, accountability, transparency, compliance with laws, looking out for social utility and respect towards environment. AKLease launces “Ecolease”, a new tailor-made product -the first and only sustainability linked product in Turkish Leasing Market, for renewable energy, energy & resource efficiency projects for companies that would like to invest not just in their business but also on their future.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor’s, “A2” by Moody’s and “A+” by the Russian credit rating agency ACRA. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.
Contact:
Haroula Christodoulou
E-mail: cchristodoulou@bstdb.org
Phone: +30 2310 290533
Twitter: @BSTDB; @Haroulax
