Turkey’s largest private
sector lender, Isbank, is to snap up regional Russian lender, Bank
of Sofia, in a deal worth around $40m.
The acquisition is the first
post-crisis deal between a commercial bank in Russia and an
international lender.
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Isbank deputy director
general Aykut Demiray said: “Isbank’s business strategy is to
expand its retail and commercial banking services in ‘unsaturated’
markets by buying small-sized banks.”
Demiray stressed that its
retail banking focus will remain on Turkey.
“In Turkey, there are on
average 13 bank branches for every 100,000 customers,” he
added.
“In Europe, the average number of bank branches per
100,000 customers is 45. We still have a long way to go [to achieve
our business potential].”
