Dexia sells its Turkish lender to Sberbank
BAILED-OUT Belgian lender Dexia is close to selling its Turkish business to Russia’s Sberbank, the bank said yesterday.
It is understood that Sberbank, which is being advised by Rothschild, is likely to pay somewhere between $3bn (£1.9bn) and $4bn for Denizbank, one of Turkey’s biggest banks.
Qatar National Bank had also been in the running to buy the business, which was also examined by HSBC earlier this year, but Sberbank is now close to sealing the deal.
The acquisition would be Sberbank’s second major deal since last September, when it agreed to buy the international operations of Austrian lender Volksbank for €505m, giving it a presence in nine Eastern European countries.
Senior bankers say that the retrenchment of many western European lenders has left the field relatively clear, with one calling it “a buyer’s market” for banks.