Skip to main content

Deutsche Bank and Akbank among banks to fund Gebze-Izmir motorway

A final financing agreement for Turkey's 421km Gebze-Izmir motorway project will be signed by nine banks, eight of which will be Turkish, in April. The agreement will be for around US$4.73 billion of the deal likely to cost in total more than $6 billion and which is the country’s largest public-private partnership project. The banks are Deutsche Bank and Turkish banks Akbank, Garanti Bankasi, Finansbank, Is Bankasi, Halkbank, Ziraat Bankasi, Yapi Kredi and Vakfbank. Work has been going on since 2010 for the
March 19, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
RSSA final financing agreement for Turkey's 421km Gebze-Izmir motorway project will be signed by nine banks, eight of which will be Turkish, in April.

The agreement will be for around US$4.73 billion of the deal likely to cost in total more than $6 billion and which is the country’s largest public-private partnership project. The banks are 3321 Deutsche Bank and Turkish banks 1476 Akbank, Garanti Bankasi, Finansbank, Is Bankasi, Halkbank, Ziraat Bankasi, Yapi Kredi and Vakfbank.

Work has been going on since 2010 for the Trans-European Standard highway, scheduled to be finished in 2018. It will run from the town of Gebze on the north shore of Izmit Bay, part of the Sea of Marmara which is also part of the connecting waterway between the Black Sea and the Agean Sea.

Almost immediately the highway will run south and across a new 3.3km suspension bridge spanning the bay – essentially a project within the project, called the Izmit Bay Crossing Project. From there it runs due south to Izmir, a major port and business centre on Turkey’s Agean coast.

Most of the highway will be six lanes and the project includes more than 40km of access roads. It should shorten the distance between Gebze and Ismir by more than 140km, mainly because it eliminates the trek around the bay to regain the road directly to Izmir. The project’s national importance comes not from connecting Gebze to Izmir. Rather that traffic from Turkey’s commercial capital Istanbul to the west, on the Bosphorous Straits, has had to pass through Gebze and around the bay to get to Izmir.

The build-operate-transfer contract is for 22 years and four months, including seven years of construction time and will cost an estimated US$6 billion. Turkey’s General Directorate of Highways (JGM), a government-owned company, is the project owner and will guarantee an annual income for the operator or around $700 million. At the end of the contract, the asset will be turned over to the 3337 KGM.

Project implementation contractor Otoyol was selected in 2009 and work has been underway since 2010. Otoyol is a consortium of five Turkish companies; 3338 Nurol (18.50%), 7135 Özaltin (15.75%), 3340 Makyol (18.50%), 4149 Yüksel (15.75%) and Gocay (15.75%) and Italian construction company 1324 Astaldi (15.75%).

The first phase of the multi-phase highway project is the $2.3 billion 53km Gebze-Orhangazi motorway section, an engineering-procurement-construction contract. It includes the $1.1 billion suspension bridge subcontracted to the consortium IIS-4081 ITOCHU.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Italy: Astaldi takes out loan for Turkish motorway project
    June 18, 2015
    Italian civil engineering group Astaldi has underwritten a €4.5 billion (US$5 billion) loan towards the Turkish motorway project of Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir, which is worth an overall €5.65 billion ($6.4 billion). According to the La Repubblica newspaper, the loan facility will be used to complete the 301km last stretch of the motorway and link the city of Bursa, south of the Sea of Marmara, and the Aegean port of Izmir. Part of the loan will be used to refinance stretches that are under construction for
  • Egis has been awarded a major Turkish highway deal
    June 25, 2013
    Egis has signed a contract for the operation and maintenance of the Gebze-İzmir highway in Turkey. The agreement was signed with OTOYOL, the concessionaire for the Turkish General Directorate of Highways (KGM). This is the second major contract award for Egis in Turkey, following the Eurasia Tunnel deal, for a 5.4km twin-deck tunnel under the Bosphorus. OTOYOL was selected by KGM as the private concessionaire for the project. OTOYOL itself is a firm established for the purpose of the Project by five Turkish
  • Turkish connections
    February 28, 2012
    Work is now underway on Turkey's new Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir highway link.
  • Two new tunnel links for Turkey
    August 28, 2013
    Two new tunnel connections in Turkey will improve transport in key areas. The new Kemerhisar-Pozanti Highway features tunnels along its length and this key route will improve connections between the country’s capital Ankara and its commercial centre Istanbul as well as to the south-east of the country. The highway will have wider benefits too as it will allow better transportation through Turkey between Europe and the Middle East. And in the busy port city of Izmir, the new Konak Tunnel will reduce jour