11.03.2019
Kuveyt Türk won these awards for its projects of financing the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and issuing sukuk to Turkcell Superonline as the first corporate sukuk issued to the telecommunication industry, at the ceremony held in Dubai.
Kuveyt Türk, the leading participation bank in Türkiye, add two more to the awards it won at the international platform. The bank won two awards at IFN Awards 2019, organized for the 14th time by Islamic Finance News, one of the leading finance news provider, to select the best players of the Islamic finance sector.
Held at the Ritz-Carlton Dubai on 10 March 2019, Sunday, the ceremony saw Kuveyt Türk win the “Project and Infrastructure Finance of the Year” award for its financing of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and the “Transaction of the Year in Türkiye” award for its issue of first corporate sukuk to Turkcell Superonline. The awards were presented to Ragıp Ali Kılınç, VP, Project and Structured Finance Kuveyt Türk.
“We are the only participation bank that financed the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge”
Expressing their happiness to win one of the most distinguished awards of the international finance market thanks to the two projects they financed in Türkiye, Ufuk Uyan, CEO Kuveyt Türk, said: “We give priority to projects that contribute to the development of this country. In this context, we are very happy to have financed the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge. As a group with our partner Kuwait Finance House (KFH), we lent Euro 200 million to this project, corresponding to 8.8 percent of its total cost. The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is a unique project in terms of being financed with a no-interest tranche as part of the finance lent to it by both public and private sectors. Therefore this award is special to us.”
“A first in the telecommunication industry”
Commenting on the award given to them for sukuk, Managing Director Ufuk Uyan said: “Last year KT Sukuk Varlık Kiralama A.Ş., a 100 percent subsidiary of this bank, issued sukuk worth TL 125 million to meet Turkcell Superonline’s financial needs. This was the first sukuk issued to the telecommunication industry, so that it was given an award. Thereafter we issued two more tranches to increase the total figure to TL 300 million and contributed to the growth and expansion of the market. The fact that this project was given an award at global scale is excellent news for both this bank and the markets.”