EBRD to finance another Turkish hospital

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced Wednesday that it was backing a €288 million euro-denominated bond ($305 million) to finance a state-of-the-art hospital campus in the eastern Turkish province of Elazig.

According to the EBRD, ELZ Finance, the issuer as a joint venture between a global infrastructure company Meridiam and one of Turkey's major construction companies Ronesans Holding, would on-lend the bond proceeds to its sister company ELZ Saglik Yatirim, which was awarded the 28-year concession by the Turkish Ministry of Health to design, build, finance, equip and maintain the new high-tech hospital.

The bond issuance has been certified as a "green and social bond" by Vigeo EIRIS, a leading international environmental, social and governance research agency, indicating the environmental and social benefits of the project, the bank said in a statement.

The 1,038-bed Elazig hospital campus project is part of the government's large scale hospital-building program under a public-private partnership model, it added.

EBRD had announced in October the signing of a comprehensive long-term financing package for the development of a €769.6 million ($841 million) high-tech hospital in the western Turkish province of Izmir.

Izmir Bayrakli Hospital, which will consist of six buildings and have a total of 2,060 beds, is expected to be operational in 2019, it said.

Since 2009, the EBRD has supported five hospital projects plus over 200 projects in infrastructure, energy, agribusiness, industry and finance in Turkey, with more than 8 billion euros financing.