Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer Represents Republic of Turkey on Its $1.25 Billion Sukuk Offering

NEW YORK and LONDON, April 10, 2017—The Republic of Turkey this week closed a $1.25 billion Sukuk offering, its fifth such financing transaction in recent years. The latest Sukuk, which was again structured to comply with Shariah law, involved the issuance of lease certificates representing interests in real estate assets owned by the Republic that were transferred to the issuer and leased back to the Republic.  

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP also represented Turkey in its four previous Sukuk transactions. The firm has represented the Republic of Turkey in global finance matters for more than 20 years.

The Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer team in the latest transaction included Steven Tepper, Deidrie Stone and Jessica Wilkins of the firm's New York office, and Jeremy Willcocks and Ben Kieft of its London office. Istanbul-based Paksoy acted as co-counsel, and their team included Sera Somay, Pinar Tuzun, Soner Dagli, and Elif Eren.

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer has an extensive history of advising international governments in financial transactions and related issues. It has actively represented the ministries of finance and central banks of many sovereign governments since well before the original debt crisis of the 1980s. It has been involved in numerous financial transactions on behalf of sovereigns throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Among its sovereign clients are Azerbaijan, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Hungary, Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Panama, and Venezuela. The firm has also represented and advised a number of the world's most prominent multilateral financial institutions in significant financial transactions and other novel legal assignments, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, OPIC, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Bank for International Settlements.