Akol, which is White & Case's base in Istanbul, has come out of a bit of a rough period to present a market leading presence across almost all the areas, with its relatively low-ranked project finance practice being praised too."We feel Akol does credible project finance work, and could go up," comments a projects partner....
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Akol, which is White & Case's base in Istanbul, has come out of a bit of a rough period to present a market leading presence across almost all the areas, with its relatively low-ranked project finance practice being praised too.
"We feel Akol does credible project finance work, and could go up," comments a projects partner. The corporate practice is the only thing that anyone has any reservations about, as one partner observes: "I am not sure about Akol anymore. They have lost two partners and I haven't seen them much over the last year."
Overall however, market feedback is strong: "Akol are solid, and Meltem Akol is very good," comments one partner, while another peer concedes: "Akol deserve to be up there in the top tier, definitely."
The firm is described by one peer as "one of the three most active in capital markets". Meltom Akol and Ceren Sen advised construction company Yuksel Insaat on a $200 million high-yield bond offering of 9.5% coupon senior notes due 2015. The banking team moved to increase its expertise this year, hiring Guniz Gokce as partner from Gide Loyrette Nouel. The team has been doing some regulatory work but has also been active on some rare restructuring mandates. On one the team is acted for Avon Automotive, a subsidiary of Petrol Automotive Holdings, and Automotive UK Holdings with regard to a credit agreement from Jefferies Finance and Barclays, among others.
A very big deal came on the corporate side, and again involved Meltem Akol. She led a team advising BBVA, the second largest bank in Spain, as it acquired a 24.9% stake in Turkiye Garanti Bankasi, a leading private sector bank, for $5.9 billion. One of the largest M&A deals last year, the transaction completed in the latter stages of 2010.
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