Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance and Yegin Ciftci advise the lenders on the financing of the largest acquisition of hydroelectric power plants in Turkey; the privatisation of Menzelet and Kılavuzlu

Clifford Chance and Yegin Ciftci advised the lenders on a landmark project: the privatisation of Menzelet and Kılavuzlu hydroelectric power plants which is the largest acquisition to date of hydroelectric power plants by a domestic investor in Turkey. This privatisation is an important step towards the future goal of all electricity being generated by private suppliers.

Entek Elektrik Üretimi A.Ş. was the winning bidder of a competitive privatisation tender, to operate two hydroelectric power plants in Kahramanmaraş province in Turkey’s south-east, namely Menzelet, with a total installed capacity of 124 MW and Kılavuzlu, with a total installed capacity of 54 MW. Entek is a subsidiary of the country's largest diversified conglomerate Koç Holding and continues its operations since 1995 as an electricity generation company having six hydroelectric power plants and one gas fired power plant with a total installed capacity of 244 MW.

The financing package of about 1.5 billion Turkish Lira (TL) (equivalent of USD 375 million) will be provided partly in TL and partly in USD by EBRD and commercial banks comprising Garanti Bank, İşbank, Akbank, Yapı Kredi, Unicredit and ICBC Turkey for the acquisition from the Privatisation Administration of Turkey of the operating rights of the Menzelet and Kılavuzlu hydroelectric power plants.

Clifford Chance's team was led by London based partner Simon Williams and assisted by senior associate Rebecca Shepherd and Yegin Ciftci team was led by Mete Yegin, assisted by senior associate Sait Eryılmaz and associate Seda Işınman.