EBRD to lend 63 mln euro to Turkey's Alternative Tasimacilik

The EBRD is providing 55.5 million euro of the financing from its own account and the remaining 7.5 million euro is syndicated to Cordiant Capital Inc, a Montreal-based infrastructure fund manager specialising in emerging markets, the EBRD said in a statement last week.

Established in 2012, Alternative Tasimacilik operates three chartered roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) cargo ships on long-distance Mediterranean routes linking Istanbul with the north-eastern Italian port city of Trieste. The ships, each with capacity for 240 trailers, carry wheeled cargo such as cars, trucks, trailers or railroad cars that are driven on and off the vessel. In its first year of operations, the company gained a market share of 18%, according to the EBRD.

“We see strong growth potential for Turkey’s logistics sector which currently represents 12 per cent of Turkey’s GDP [gross domestic product],” said Sue Barrett, EBRD director for transport.

As much as 85% of Turkey’s international trade is seaborne and is growing at a rapid pace. The size of the industry has tripled in the last 10 years and the growth potential for logistics companies like Alternative is significant, the EBRD said.

To date, the EBRD has invested almost 4.5 billion euro in Turkey in more than 130 projects in infrastructure, energy, agribusiness, industry and finance, it added.

($ = 0.820 euro)