Turkish banking moves
Dutch banking company ING NV recently announced the acquisition of Turkey's Oyak Bank in a $2.67 billion deal. ING, which has extensive worldwide operations in Internet banking and insurance, is the #1 financial institution in the Netherlands.
That's just the latest acquisition of a major Turkish bank by a European or American banks, as global rivals jockey for a share of the burgeoning Turkish economy.
Examples:
2004
French bank BNP Paribas bought 59% of Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) for $217 million.
2005
- Belgian bank Dexia Bank bought Turkey's DenizBank in 2005 for $2.5 billion
- Dutch financial group Fortis NV acquired 90% of Disbank in 2005 for over $1 billion.
- General Electric Consumer Finance bought 26% of Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS for $1.88 billion.
2006
- Citigroup Inc. bought 20% of Turkey's Akbank TAS, Turkey's leading private bank, for about $3.1 billion.
- The National Bank of Greece bought a majority share Finansbank for $2.7 billion
- Greek bank EFG Eurobank bought 70% of Tekfenbank for $260 million.
What's remarkable is how two Greek banks have made major investments in Turkey, since only a few decades ago the two NATO countries almost went to war over Cyprus..
Clearly all these deals are part of a buying frenzy. After the BNP Paribas buy, nearly everyone wanted to get a price of the underdeveloped, family firm oriented Turkish banking market while the bargains were there and before all the players were sewed up.
