Global law firm White & Case LLP was legal advisor to Yapi Kredi Bank, one of the largest private banks in Turkey, on its inaugural offering of US$650 million Perpetual Fixed Rate Resettable Additional Tier 1 Notes.

"White & Case was legal advisor to long-standing client Yapi Kredi on a milestone bond transaction that demonstrates our market leading ability to break new ground in the international capital markets," said White & Case partner Richard Pogrel. "Together with Yapi Kredi's treasury, compliance and legal teams, the combination of our cross-border regulatory capital capabilities in London and Istanbul made the deal possible through the resolution of various challenging issues that arose during the course of the transaction."

It is the first ever public Additional Tier 1 bond issuance from Turkey, and the first issue of non-sovereign international bonds from Turkey since April 2018, thereby reopening the Turkish private sector bond market. The Notes are callable every five years and feature principal loss absorption in the form of temporary write-down, based on CET1 trigger.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and UniCredit acted as global co-ordinators and joint bookrunners, with JP Morgan and Societe Generale acting as joint bookrunners.

The White & Case team which was legal advisor on the transaction was led by partners Ashley Ballard and Richard Pogrel (both London), counsel Doron Loewinger (London) and association partner Derin Altan (Istanbul), with support from associates Neha Saran, Luiza Salata (both London) and Eren Ayanlar (Istanbul).