Denizbank is the fifth-largest private bank in Turkey and Sberbank’s largest asset outside Russia.
The sale is part of a strategy by Russia’s largest retail bank to focus on its domestic market.
The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, comes despite Turkey’s support for Qatar during the blockade of the kingdom by Arab nations including UAE.
Regional play
“Through this transaction, Emirates NBD will establish itself as a leading bank in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region and achieve meaningful diversification of its operations, both in new countries and in a broad range of business segments,” said Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, vice chairman and managing director, Emirates NBD.
Shayne Nelson, group chief executive of Emirates NBD said: “The transaction represents a significant milestone for Emirates NBD and is expected to be accretive to shareholders in the first year.
“Denizbank is a well-managed and prominent organisation in the Turkish banking market, which with the current deal structure, comes at a reasonable price on acquisition for Emirates NBD.”
Denizbank has assets of 169.4 bn lira ($37.25 bn €31.6bn £27.7bn) and operates 751 branches, including 43 outside Turkey, while Emirates NBD has banks in the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore, the UK, and offices in China and Indonesia.
“The decision to sell Denizbank is prompted by a change in Sberbank Group’s international strategy and will allow us to focus further on development of ecosystem of Sberbank.” said Herman Gref, chief executive of Sberbank.
Outside of Turkey Sberbank is also looking to sell a network of eight subsidiary banks in central and eastern Europe.
The deal is expected to complete in 2018.
