Investment supports landmark partnership with Siemens
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a €10 million loan to Bozankaya, a Turkish producer of public transportation vehicles such as trams and electric buses, in a move to strengthen the integration of the local economy with global markets.
Bozankaya has partnered with Siemens, the largest manufacturing and electronics company in Europe, to produce 22 four-wagon metro trains for Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. The EBRD loan will finance the capital expenditure needed to fulfil this order.
Bozankaya will manufacture the metro cars at its Ankara plant and will be investing in a robotic automated welding machine and a new facility to be able to expand production.
Jean-Patrick Marquet, EBRD Managing Director for Turkey, said: “Bozankaya is a pioneer in Turkey when it comes to environmentally-friendly electric buses and trams. Now, this partnership with Siemens is taking it to a new level. The company, its staff and the Turkish manufacturing sector as a whole will benefit enormously from the know-how that the leading global engineering company is bringing into this joint undertaking. We are pleased to play a role and wish the consortium the best of luck in future tenders across the globe.”
Aytunç Günay Bozankaya, the chairman of the board of Bozankaya, said: “Our company designs and produces trams, electric buses and metros for the future. With this new landmark partnership with Siemens, and with the support of the EBRD, we will be flying the flag for Turkish engineering across the world.”
The EBRD’s financing for Turkish private sector companies, such as Bozankaya, makes them more competitive in global markets. Competitiveness is one of the six transition qualities the EBRD has identified in its approach to the countries where it invests, with environmentally friendly, resilience, governance, integration and inclusion the other key elements.
The EBRD started investing in Turkey in 2009 and currently operates from offices in Istanbul, Ankara and Gaziantep. The country is a top destination for the Bank’s finance, with €1.9 billion invested in 2016 alone. To date, the Bank has invested over €9 billion in Turkey through more than 220 projects across sectors and has mobilised nearly €20 billion for these ventures from other sources of financing. Some 98 per cent of the Bank’s investments in Turkey are in the private sector.