September 5 (SeeNews) - ICA, a consortium of Turkish construction firm IC Ictas and Italian peer Astaldi, has obtained a $2.3 billion (1.7 billion euro) loan from seven banks to finance the construction of a third bridge across the Bosphorus strait in Turkey, IC Ictas said.
The nine-year loan will be provided by Turkish banks Garanti Bank [BIST:GARAN], Halk Bank [BIST:HALKB], Isbank [BIST:ISATR], Vakifbank [BIST:VAKBN], Ziraat Bank [BIST:TCZB], Yapi Kredi Bank [BIST:YKBNK] and Garantibank International B.V., IC Ictas said in a statement earlier this week.
The consortium won the build-operate-transfer contract for the project in a tender held in 2012. Unde the deal, the consortium will build the bridge, which is part of the North Marmara Highway road project, in 36 months and will operate it 10 years and two months. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 29.
($ = 0.759 euro)