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"Turkey's largest bank Isbank have signed an agreement to buy Bank Sofia, a Closed Joint Stock company based in Moscow.
Isbank told the Istanbul Stock Exchange this week that the purchase is now pending regulatory approval, which should take about 1 year. After the purchase has been approved, Isbank is to pay $36million, and another $4 million 1 year after.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in one year after regulatory approvals, İşbank said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange late Monday. İşbank will pay $36 million on the date of the transaction and $4 million a year later, the bank said.
On the opposite side of the coin, Spanish bank BBCA wants to buy a controlling (30%-35%) stake in Turkish Garanti Bank. Unnamed sources in the Turkish financial industry have said that the deal is likely to be worth 6 billion Euros. BBVA has drafted in the services of investment specialists Morgan Stanley to assist in brokering the deal.
BBVA's plan is reach some kind of management pact with Dogus Group (Garanti Bank's biggest stakeholder), but sources have said that it will only go ahead on the deal if it will have an active role on the bank's board. Given the state of the Turkish banking system this could be a hard sell.
Garanti has also been making announcements at the Istanbul Stock Exchange, we will soon see an issue of some 3 billion Turkish Lira Denominated bonds with varying maturities issued by the bank.
This is another testament to the massive strength and good health of the Turkish banking system not to mention its maturing mortgage market.
