This blog post was published under the 2015 to 2024 Conservative government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Turkey

23rd October 2015

UK Export Finance: Providing Credit to Turkey

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Everyone needs credit.  Especially businesses.

So it is important that UK Export Finance (UKEF), the oldest credit agency in the world, is over here and doing business in Turkey.

In fact, UKEF has just concluded its first direct lending facility inTurkey.  The loan, worth €23.6m, will be used to build a gas-fired power plant in Eastern Turkey.

The plant includes a UK-manufactured industrial turbine supplied by Siemens, which required the aero-derivative gas turbine business from Rolls Royce in 2014.

UKEF is a nimble and successful outfit, awarded “Export Credit Agency of the Year” by Global Trade Review in 2014.  UKEF helps overseas buyers buy goods and services from UK suppliers at highly competitive rates of interest.  While many export credit agencies require 50-80% content from their own countries to qualify for loans or guarantees, UKEF requires only a minimum of 20% UK content.

That’s a good deal.

UKEF is also innovative: when Emirates airlines wanted to use Islamic finance to buy four new airbus A380s for its fleet in 2015, UKEF developed an innovative guarantee for a sharia-compliant sukuk (Islamic bond) in the debt capital markets.  The case was hailed as a new gold standard for sharia-compliant asset finance, helping widen the options for buyers of UK exports.

Nearly a third of the value of the Airbus 380 carrying Rolls Royce engines is made in the UK.

If you’d like to talk about how UKEF can help finance exports to Turkey, South Caucasus, Central Asia, Ukraine or indeed any other country, contact Ali Sherwani, Regional Manager for UKEF at ali.sherwani@ukef.gsi.gov.uk.  Or check out the UKEF website at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-export-finance.

Follow Leigh Turner on Twitter at @leighturnerFCO

1 comment on “UK Export Finance: Providing Credit to Turkey”

  1. WHY GAS?????? Surely solar powered would be the better option are you all mad or taking back handers somewhere along the line! Think renewable energy! Not rocket science is it!

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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