Russia’s largest lender by assets Sberbank is
not in acquisition talks, but is currently only considering the
acquisition of Turkish lender Denizbank, alongside studying all the
“other assets offered on the Turkish market”.
In a statement to RBI, Sberbank
confirmed it is only considering the acquisition of Denizbank as
the Turkish market is of interest to the lender, and no talks have
started.
Sberbank also confirmed it is studying all the
banks that are on sale in eastern and central Europe.
DenizBank, the 7th largest Turkish
bank by assets, is a unit of Dexia.
The Belgian government has acquired Dexia’s retail banking division
in a €4bn ($5.43bn) nationalisation.
On 7 October, French newspaper Les
Echos reported that Sberbank is interested in acquiring
DenizBank, the 7th largest Turkish bank by assets, and
has already started talks to prepare an offer for DenizBank.
Sberbank began its international expansion
strategy in 2006 and has since bought banks in Kazakhstan, the
Ukraine and Belarus.
