Qatar National Bank (SAQ) agreed to buy National Bank of Greece SA’s (NBG) stake in its Turkish subsidiary, Finansbank AS, for 2.7 billion euros ($2.95 billion). The deal to buy NBG’s 99.8% holding needs to be approved before it can close in the first half of 2016.
The Doha-based lender will finance the purchase with its own funds and will remain “strongly capitalized” after the acquisition, according to a statement. “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,” Group Chief Executive Officer Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari said in the statement.
NBG had bought Finansbank for $5 bln in a landmark deal struck in 2006 and was then considered Turkey’s biggest-ever banking deal. Since then Finansbank had been responsible for driving NBG’s profits at a time of crisis, but it is now forced to sell its stake to comply with conditions of the EU bailout deal with Greece’s creditors.
