The overwhelming market opinion is that Paksoy merits its high positions, though the firm does display differing abilities and levels of visibility across different areas.Capital markets appear fairly strong, with competitors happy to praise the firm: "Paksoy could be looking to be moved up, we see them a lot," while another peer agrees: "We see a lot of Paksoy, they could be tier one....
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The overwhelming market opinion is that Paksoy merits its high positions, though the firm does display differing abilities and levels of visibility across different areas.
Capital markets appear fairly strong, with competitors happy to praise the firm: "Paksoy could be looking to be moved up, we see them a lot," while another peer agrees: "We see a lot of Paksoy, they could be tier one."
The main deal for the markets team over the previous period was its advising of the joint lead managers Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan, on the debut bond issue by Akbank, a financial institution that represents Turkey's largest lender in terms of market value. Worth around $1 billion, the five-year bond was issued in late July 2010.
Other areas are stronger for the firm however, as partners explain. "In banking, Paksoy is OK there, it is solid," remarks a finance partner, while in M&A a corporate partner comments on the firm being conspicuous by its absence: "I haven't actually seen an awful lot of Paksoy in recent times."
Seemingly contradicting this, the M&A team at the firm has had a respectable year, with a number of multibillion Euro deals completed. One particularly notable deal was advising BNP Paribas on the €15 billion merger of Fortis Bank and Turk Ekonomi, a led by corporate expert Serdar Paksoy, which involved post-merger restructuring and regulatory work.
Serdar Paksoy also led the team that advising GE Capital on its $3.7 billion sale of an 18.6% stake in Turkey's second largest bank Garanti to Spanish banking group BBVA in March 2011.
The firm's banking practice mainly concerned itself with project financing, including advising Akbank on the $67.5 million financing for the construction of two hydroelectric plants at Yedigol and Aksu. Partner Togan Turan is also currently engaged in advising Isbank, TSKB and YapiKredi banks with regard to a $280 million loan to an energy developer, which is expected to complete before the end of the year.
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