A TELLING FACT from this year’s Euromoney best-managed central and eastern European companies poll is that virtue does seem to bring its own reward in financial terms for many of the winners. Right from overall winner Garanti Bankasi down to the country categories, the winners are generally conspicuous for having already enjoyed, or being poised to enjoy, success in the international capital markets as a result of their management prowess.
Pick of the bunch Garanti, for example, is sounding out the main players in the syndicated loan market in search of a new facility to replace an $815 million loan that came due in March, as a result of its successful weathering of the global credit crunch and the subsequent economic slowdown. Garanti is the doyen of the top-four Turkish banks and is likely to see the pricing on its latest loan pushed down to 150 basis points all-in, from 250bp or more a year earlier. Should it return later in the year Garanti would be a prime candidate to push down benchmark pricing for Turkish risk to a new post-crisis low of 125bp all-in or even less.