Arda is a Transaction Lawyer in the Projects and Structured Finance Group.

Arda specialises in infrastructure and energy transactions acting for governments, developers/sponsors, multilaterals/IFIs/ECAs, financial institutions and institutional investors. Arda has extensive experience in the project financing, the export credit financing and the restructuring of such transactions and covers a wide range of infrastructure and energy sectors including airports, ports, roads, hospitals, biogas, waste, solar, wind and hydro. His transactional experience also covers debt capital markets transactions. Arda is Turkish law qualified and, prior to joining Watson Farley & Williams, worked in international law firms in Frankfurt and Turkey.

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  • Advising a British Bank acting as the “Global Coordinator” on the financing of a railroad construction project in Turkey, subject to certain public financing legislation and review of tender procedures. The USD 1,200,000,000 financing package included a Commercial Facility Agreement and two export credit facilities.
  • Advising a German Bank and multiple Turkish Banks on an English law governed USD 1,020,000,000 financing for the operational rights of Galataport Istanbul (formerly Salıpazarı Harbor) from Turkish Privatization Authority to a Turkish conglomerate, with major interests in construction and energy and the financing of the investments to be made thereunder.
  • Advising a leading Turkish Bank on an English law governed syndication financing under an LMA Standard facility agreement from 45 global financial institutions.
  • Advising two international financial institutions on an English law governed project finance loan facility comprising commercial loan facilities, non-cash facilities and an ECA facility in the amount of approx. USD 400,000,000.
  • Advising the international sponsors on an English law governed loan facility in the amount of USD 500,000,000 to an Emirati real estate development company for the construction of a multi-purpose complex in Istanbul.
  • Advising a British bank on an English law governed corporate green loan in the amount of USD 45,000,000 to a Turkish industrial conglomerate for its electric vehicle import business.
  • Advising a German bank on the structuring and ECA financing of a long-term EUR loan for a wind farm with an installed capacity of 67 MW. The wind farm is supplied with turbines from a European wind tribune manufacturer as supplier.
  • Advising a German bank on the structuring and ECA financing of a long-term EUR loan for Kemerburgaz Wind Farm with an installed capacity of 34 MW. The wind farm is supplied with turbines from an American wind tribune manufacturer as supplier.
  • Advising a syndicate of lenders comprising 20 local and foreign banks, on the restructuring of the cash and non-cash debts of a leading conglomerate manufacturing food products and one the largest food manufacturers in CEEMEA region, and its group companies in the amount of approx. USD 5,500,000,000, one of the largest debt restructurings in Turkey to date.

Education

  1. 2023 – 2024 · LL.M. in Law and Finance at the Institute of Law and Finance, Goethe University of Frankfurt
  2. 2016 – 2017 · LL.M. (Business Law), Bilgi University, School of Law, Istanbul (non-graduate)
  3. 2010 – 2014 · LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws), Yeditepe University, School of Law, Istanbul

memberships and associations

  1. Istanbul Bar