KOMMERSANT. Today, June 8, Sberbank of Russia is to make the biggest acquisition in its history as the bank is going to sign an agreement on the binding offer to buy Turkish lender Denizbank for $3.4—3.5 bln from banking group Dexia. The deal would include Denizbank’s banking subsidiaries in Russia and Austria, and also factoring, leasing and other financial companies, Kommersant business daily wrote on Friday.
Several sources close to the negotiations told Kommersant that today Sberbank would sign in Istanbul a binding offer to acquire Turkish lender Denizbank from Belgian-French group Dexia, which has been divesting its non-core assets in the course of its rehabilitation. “The signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday, the price range offered by Sberbank is around 1.3x of Denizbank’s capital,“ one of the sources said. Denizbank’s capital totals $2.65 bln. “Sberbank has already conducted preliminary due diligence, another thorough due diligence will be carried out after the binding agreement is signed, during which the final price will be determined, and currently it ranges from $3.4 bln to $3.5 bln,” another source said. “In the document the transaction price will be given in the local currency and will amount to around TRL 6.5 bln," another source of the newspaper specified. As of June 7 this amount equaled roughly $3.55 bln. According to Kommersant data, the deal, apart from Denizbank, would also include all its subsidiaries. Dexia, Denizbank and Sberbank declined to comment.
Denizbank AS ranks sixth among Top 10 banks in Turkey. Based on year-end 2011 data, Denizbank AS’s assets totaled $23.4 bln. In January — March 2012 the bank’s credit portfolio grew 5% to $17.8 bln. The bank’s network is comprised of around 600 business units and the workforce equals 10,800. Denizbank is the owner of Denizbank Moscow, Austria’s Denizbank AG and EuroDeniz, a banking subsidiary in the partly recognized Republic of Northern Cyprus. Besides, the group includes businesses engaged in factoring and leasing, and which also carry out investment and asset management activities.
Sberbank became the only contender to the Turkish asset of Dexia Group, which was put up for sale as part of its restructuring, having made arrangements about exclusive negotiations in late May. Previously Denizbank was also eyed by Qatar National Bank (QNB) which, according to Kommersant, offered about 1.2x of capital for the asset. Sberbank’s offer turned out to be more attractive, and previously Kommersant’s sources said that Sberbank even offered not 1.3x, but 1.5x of capital for Denizbank.
