DOHA: Qatar National Bank Tuesday agreed to buy a Turkish subsidiary of the National Bank of Greece for $2.95 billion (2.7 billion euros), describing the acquisition as a “milestone” deal.
Under the terms of the prospective sale, QNB will buy NBG’s entire stake of 99.8 percent in Finansbank. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
“This transaction is a significant milestone in QNB’s vision to becoming a Middle East and Africa icon by 2017 and a leading global bank by 2030,” QNB’s Group Chief Executive Officer Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari said in a statement.
QNB said it would buy Finansbank, the fifth largest privately owned bank on the Turkish market, through its own funds and would remain “strongly capitalised”.
The deal reflects Turkey’s increasingly close relationship with Qatar. QNB said in the statement that trade with Turkey across the Middle East and North Africa region has risen nearly tenfold from 2000 to $52.2 billion in 2014.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Qatar this month and re-iterated plans for his country to set up a military base in the tiny Gulf state.
The deal also demonstrates the parlous state of the Greek banking sector. A bailout deal for Athens, agreed by Eurozone finance ministers in August, included provision to recapitalise Greece’s ailing banks to the amount of up to 26 billion euros.
Many of the banks suffered a massive run on deposits as clients feared the country could leave the single currency.
