QNB gets approval for Turkey acquisition

12 April 2016

$3bn acquisition to go ahead

Qatar National Bank (QNB), the GCC’s largest, has received approvals from Qatar Central Bank and Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency to acquire Finansbank.

The share transfer will take place when remaining regulatory approvals are received.

QNB agreed to acquire a 99.81 per cent stake in the Turkish bank for €2.7bn ($3.1bn) from the National Bank of Greece in December 2015.

Finansbank is the fifth-largest private bank in Turkey. In mid-2015, it had assets of $29bn, a loanbook worth $19.5bn and $14.6bn in deposits. It is rated Ba2 and BBB- by US-based Moody’s Investors Services and UK-based Fitch Ratings.

QNB Capital and the US’ JP Morgan are joint financial advisors. The UK’s Clifford Chance is acting as lead legal counsel and Yegin Çiftçi Attorney Partnership is the local legal counsel.

QNB Group’s total assets reached QR539bn ($148bn) at the end of 2015, with profits that year of QR11.3bn.

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