PRIME-TASS. Next week Sberbank of Russia could pen an agreement to acquire Turkish lender Denizbank, a deal could be closed in several months, a source familiar with the situation told Prime-TASS.
“An exact date to enter into the purchase agreement will be determined at the beginning of next week," the source said.
The source did not rule out that the agreement could be entered into at the end of next week.
For the record, at the end of last week Belgian group Dexia said it commenced exclusive negotiations with Sberbank over a possible acquisition of Denizbank, an agreement under the deal was planned to be signed in the days to come.
As Sberbank CEO and board chairman German Gref previously said, if closed, this will be the biggest acquisition in Sberbank’s history on record.
The media previously wired that the deal’s impact on Sberbank’s capital adequacy ratio would not exceed 1%.
In the past two years the media has regularly wired that Sberbank is eying various banking assets in Turkey. Earlier, on May 15, Bloomberg wired quoting sources that Sberbank resumed negotiations over the acquisition of Turkish lender Denizbank AS and offers a higher price than Qatar National Bank SAQ (QNB), which was previously considered a main contender to buy this asset from debt-stricken group Dexia SA.
