Three bidders have emerged as potential buyers
for Dexia’s Turkish subsidiary DenizBank.
Dexia has been hardest hit among European
banks due to its exposure to Greek government debt.
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According to analyst speculation,
emerging-markets focused Standard Chartered, Russia’s Sberbank and
Italy’s Banca Intesa are all eying up DenizBank.
In 2006 Standard Chartered and Franco-Belgian
lender Dexia, submitted bids for the bank.
But Standard Chartered refused to match
Dexia’s higher price at the time.
Standard Chartered told RBI that they do not
comment on market speculation.
For Sberbank, the acquistion of DenizBank would be part of its
ongoing plan to expand in Europe.
DenizBank has been launching a series of
innovations in order to grow and become more competitive within the
Turkish retail banking sector, including an m-payment initiative
with Turkcell in June.
In the first half of the year, DenizBank
upgraded its online banking platform and has also agreed a
distribution deal with the Turkish Post Office, PTT.
By the end of 2011, it aims to become Turkey’s fifth largest lender
by assets.
The anticipated major re-structuring of Dexia
will also include sell off of other assets, including its
Luxembourg-based business unit, Dexia Banque Internationale.
