Turkey's Garanti Bank says signs loan worth $575 mln

STANBUL, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Major Turkish lender Garanti Bank has signed a syndicated loan worth $575 million with 20 banks from 10 different countries, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The loan is made up of $215 million and 282 million euros.

The announcement will help quell concerns voiced by analysts about the extent to which Turkish companies and in particular its banks will be able to roll over their external debts, given frozen credit channels since the deepening of the global financial crisis.

Ratings agencies warned last month Turkish banks now faced a much tougher environment in which to secure fresh financing.

'Garanti has announced that it has rolled over 82 percent of its syndication loans... we welcome the news as the roll over ratio is above the market expectation of 70 percent, while the interest is in line with expectations,' said analysts at Is Yatirim, who have an 'outperform' rating on the stock.

The interest rate is at LIBOR plus 2 percent.

Garanti shares closed 3.77 percent higher, outperforming the index of leading Istanbul shares, which closed up 0.39 percent at 24,425 points.

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