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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Turkey

17th July 2014

How to finance imports from Britain to Turkey

s630_Homepage_image3Did you know that UK Export Finance (UKEF) can help you finance imports from the United Kingdom?  And that they have their own resident expert, Sinan Ozcan, right here in Turkey, responsible for project business development?

UK Export Finance is the UK’s export credit agency.  It works closely with overseas buyers to help them finance purchases from UK suppliers.

The basic deal is that UKEF helps overseas buyers access finance for UK supplies by providing guarantees:

(i)  for long term loans, usually repayable over 2-10 yrs (but sometimes longer eg for project finance) and

(ii) at competitive rates of interest

UKEF can also offer funding of up to £3 billion directly to overseas buyers of UK exports through the Direct Lending Facility.

UK Export Finance has helped overseas buyers all over the world on projects ranging from buying gas turbines to building of a waste-to-energy plant, construction of a hospital, purchase of construction equipment or related services such as consultancy, engineering, or architecture.

No project is too big or too small: UKEF support has helped UK exporters supply to projects from US$1m to US$20bn. UKEF can consider buyers from corporate entities to sovereign or public buyers and project finance, including PPPs.

As if that weren’t enough, UKEF can also help UK exporters by:

(i) providing insurance against the risk of not being paid by their overseas buyer; and

(ii) guaranteeing export working capital facilities and advance, bid or performance bonds from their bank.

If some or all of this sounds relevant to your business, please contact Sinan – he’s waiting to hear from you!  His e-mail is sinan.ozcan@ukexportfinance.com and his telephone number is +90 532 547 1362.  Or check out the UKEF website.

PS: a diagram showing how export credits work is below:

diagram

About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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